Slainte
by dragonallie23
Summary: Cheers! The Marauders are in for a wild ride as they conquer hearts, pranks, and friends. But the quartet has changed... Bridget McGuire is here to shake things up!
1. Chapter 1

"James, wake up already!"

James Potter groaned and rolled over, ignoring that whiny, little nagging voice at the back of his head…

"JAMES!"

Mrs. Potter's voice, magically magnified to three times its normal volume boomed into James' ears. His eyes flew open in a panic, and with a muffled scream he fell out of bed onto the floor.

"Serves you right," said the figure looming above him. "I've been trying to get you up for the past half hour. Get dressed before Sirius eats all the cinnamon rolls." The mention of his best friend and breakfast had James up in a flash. He shoved his glasses onto his nose, grabbed the cleanest dirty shirt he could find and shook out his rumpled, slept in jeans. He snapped his fingers and a house elf appeared.

"Clean my room!" he shouted, before sprinting out onto the landing. After dashing through the Potter Mansion's many rooms and hallways, James came to a screeching halt on the landing that led to the kitchen.

"DROP THE ROLL."

Sirius Black let a smile twitch on the corners of his mouth. In his hand was the last of Allie Potter's famous cinnamon rolls. She was a lousy cook in general, but her cinnamon rolls were a thing of legacy. Or at least that was what Sirius thought.

"What roll?" he asked innocently. "Oh! You mean this roll? This sweet, sugary, hot, delicious-"

James made a lunge for the cinnamon roll and missed when Sirius moved at the last second. He somersaulted onto the floor and got back to his feet. Pandemonium ensued; James scrambled around the kitchen trying to tackle Sirius, Sirius scrambled around the kitchen trying to avoid James, knocking over several chairs, kitchen supplies, and sending food flying every which way. Mr. Potter, who had been calmly reading_The Daily Prophet_, continued to do so, occasionally lifting his paper or scooting his chair to make room for whoever dashed by.

"Enough!" Mrs. Potter walked into the room and immediately the two friends froze. She saw the cinnamon roll in James' hand and sighed in exasperation. "Dear God, James, it's as if we never feed you. There are fresh cinnamon rolls in the oven. Sirius, dear, would you grab the milk out of the fridge? Thank you sweetheart. And why didn't you stop them Richard?" she directed the last question at her husband who was still sitting at the table reading the paper with a mild expression on his face.

"I'm sorry dear, but I was just reading this fascinating article on the Wizengamot election results."

There was dead silence in the kitchen for a full minute. Then the words sunk in…

"Lemme see dad!"

"Honey, what does it say?"

"Did you win Mr. Potter?" The noise had reached decibel level when Mr. Potter shouted loudly over his wife's anxious voice and James and Sirius' jibber, "I can't tell you if you all don't SHUT UP!" The noise died down immediately. "Much better. Let's see here, Percival Peeves, umm, twelve votes. Lacy Hunter, eight votes. Harold Limington, twenty votes. Terrines Lisa Kensington, twenty votes. Richard Potter, _thirty votes_."

"YES! DAD WON! DAD WON! DAD WON!" shrieked James. Sirius was grinning from ear to ear and Mrs. Potter looked faint.

"Well, this calls for a celebration then. Dear, what do you think about dropping by Diagon Alley before we drop the boys off at school?" she asked weakly.

"Pretty please?" begged Sirius. He dropped to one knee and put on his most adorable you-can't-refuse-my-every-wish-face.

"Yeah, pretty please?" James joined Sirius on the floor and pouted. Mr. Potter laughed.

"Why not? Allie, dear, would you please call up the house elf? We'll have to swing by the Ministry so that I can make my acceptance speech, but the boys won't mind being in the _Daily Prophet_ would they?"

"Wicked!" exclaimed Sirius. With amazing speed, he and James woofed down the rest of the cinnamon rolls, sprinted back up to James' room and got dressed in clean clothes in record speed. A word to the house elf sent their trunks on their way downstairs and in less than fifteen minutes, the entire Potter family-plus Sirius, minus Mr. Potter who had gone ahead by Floo to check that everything was ready- were waiting in the grand entrance hall waiting for the chauffeur to bring the Wizard car up the rainy drive. Mrs. Potter brushed invisible stray hairs away from Sirius' shoulders as James fiddled with his new wand.

"Are you ready Madame?" The chauffeur had arrived.

Mrs. Potter looked around her the last time, doing the loving check over that all mothers mysteriously know, and finally said, "Yes, I believe it's time to go."

And so began Sirius Black and James Potter's greatest adventure.

* * *

Lily Evans passed the brush through her hair one more time. Amazingly enough, her hair had abandoned its usually tangled state to become one beautiful mane of curls. Not.

She had at first just shampooed and conditioned. When that had failed, she stepped it up with a quick twenty minute hot-oil treatment. Nothing. The attack on her hair became ferocious; she used mousse, detangle spray, and electro-shock therapy (long story). When she had laid her hair down on the family ironing board and the iron barely made a dent, she knew. It was one of those weird "magic" things again. Sighing, she wrapped her hair in a scarf and started walking.

After a while she came to a quaint country house just a third of a mile away from the Evans' own home. She stepped onto the cliché "Welcome" mat and rang the doorbell. The door cracked open and dark violet eye peeped out through the tiny space. It was one of younger Healey children.

"Hi Lily!" she was attacked by a flying blur of blonde hair and tan skin that had exploded out of the house.

"Glad to see you too, Christie." She wheezed. "Is Marie here?"

"Uh huh!" Christie grabbed Lily's hand and began to drag her through the house. "Wait 'til you see what I got yesterday! I got a brand-new toy broomstick, Lily! And guess what? It goes up to four feet! Isn't that cool? You're so lucky you're old enough to go to Hogwarts, Lily! You'll get to ride _real brooms_." She stopped smiling. "You have to go alone from here, Lily" she said solemnly. "I'm not allowed to go into Marie's room anymore. I stole her broom and I crashed it through the window yesterday. I'm sorry."

"That's okay, Christie." Lily patted her head and hid a smile at the younger girl's antics. "You've been a great help. Why don't you go see if Hailey wants to play Quidditch?"

Christie brightened and then ran off to find her twin.

Lily took a deep breath before charging the door. She made a dive for it, grabbing a pillow on the way down to protect her from the darts that made up part of Marie's homemade alarm system. She landed in a crouch and then tackled the nightstand and threw the clock across the room. It broke and activated the bowling ball that swooped down from the nearby closet door on a thin string. Lily dodged the ball then ripped apart the covers where one of her best friends, Marie Healey was giggling from underneath the sheets and tickled her mercilessly.

"Okay, okay, what do you want?" she gasped.

"We need to Floo to the McGuire's. I'm having a bad hair day."

"It can't be that bad. You realize that if we Floo to the McGuire's, her sisters are going to be all over you! You'll end up looking like a one of those Barbie dolls that you gave my sisters. Besides, they're all the way in Switzerland."

Lily sighed. "Good point. We don't have enough time for that. What have you got?"

Marie smiled and Lily automatically backed away. "I don't trust that smile, last time you smiled like that, Bridget's hair caught on fire."

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing this time." She coaxed Lily onto her vanity table chair and flipped on the lights. Marie untied Lily's hair scarf and grimaced. "This is going to take awhile." She snapped her fingers. "I'll have Dad pick up your trunk and we'll go to Platform 9 ¾ together!"

"Brilliant." Lily relaxed as her best friend played with her hair, twisting it and spraying various potions onto the unruly tangled curls.

She leaned her head back and began the countdown to the Hogwarts' Express and the adventure of a lifetime.

* * *

_Three giggling, gossiping girls, and no escape hatch._ Bridget McGuire rubbed her temples and tried to bring her raging headache back to a dull throb. She silently cursed the inventor of Wizard cars. He had excluded one, crucial detail to the McGuire's one of a kind, special designed Wizard car. Or maybe two. A mute button that worked on teenaged girls if they got too loud, and an escape hatch if they got too out of control. At the moment, they were both. Bridget loved her stepsisters, but they were always so, _so what? You get like this too, around your friends._ her conscience reminded her. She inwardly cringed, she hated it when she, _it_ was right. She took one deep, calming breath and then listened in the conversation.

They were talking about Beauxbatons, their boarding school. She slumped down in her seat and resumed rubbing her forehead. Wife Number Two had been French and of course, her darling daughters _had_ to go Beauxbatons. Where wife Number Two was now, no one knew. After the divorce, she had disappeared somewhere in Canada, taking with her a cool 1.2 million Galleons, but leaving her three teenaged daughters. Wherever she was right now, Bridget hoped she felt the raging pain in her forehead that she did. She couldn't take it anymore. She scooted up to the driver's seat, and tapped the shoulder of their chauffeur.

"Excuse me, Henry? Any chance you have a headache potion close by?"

"Certainly, Madame." He pushed a small button and a cabinet popped out next to the Wizard's Wireless.

"Thank you, Henry." She closed the divider between the driver and the main body of the limo. She grabbed a carbonated water from the mini-fridge and a headache potion from the small medicine cabinet. A snap of her fingers and it sunk back into the wall. She leaned back onto the leather seat and gulped the potion down. She gave a small sigh of relief and after taking a few sips from the carbonated water, put it back into the mini-fridge and smiled approvingly. One of the things that she liked about Wizard cars, (or in her case Wizard limos) was that the inventor had installed Muggle features such as the mini-fridge and the limo form, but kept classic features such as the Wizard's Wireless.

She checked the limo clock and then started to play with her new puppy. It was a gift from Papa; he had gotten special permission from Professor Dumbledore so that she could bring her Corgi, Bisou to school. As she rubbed its soft belly she reflected that it was actually probably not such a good idea. She was already branded as a spoiled brat because of her stepsisters' notorious party girl reputation, and the fact that she was arriving in a Wizard limo probably wouldn't help. At least she would already have friends. She smiled fondly as she remembered Lily Evans, Marie Healey, Alice Reeves, and Claire Collins. They were her best friends in the world and she loved them to death. She sighed; they were probably going to be split up. Her cousin Claire would probably be in Ravenclaw along with Alice. Lily would no doubt be a Gryffindor and Marie was destined for Hufflepuff as were all the rest of her family. As for me, I'll be stuck in Slytherin. Stinky, smelly, snobby, sardonic, stupid, slimy, slut-nosed, Slytherin. Oh joy.

She felt the car come to a halt and lifted Bisou into her carrier. She double-checked the car to insure that none of her belongings had been scattered during the long ride from Switzerland to London. Why Papa had to take the _entire_ family on a business trip with him the week before school was beyond her. She took a deep breath and stepped outside into the train station. She started walking up to the platform barrier and stopped.

"Everything all right, Madame?" queried Henry.

"Henry, will I like Hogwarts?" She stood with her back to him so that he couldn't see her trembling.

"Finest school there ever was, Madame. Went there myself, I was in Hufflepuff. Take my word for it Madame, you'll love it there."

"Thank you, Henry." Bridget straightened up and walked straight through the barrier with Henry at her heels. "My friends will meet me on the train, Henry. Thank you for your help."

He tipped his hat and said, "It was a pleasure, Madame. See you on your next holiday!" and left her alone on the platform. Bridget sized the scarlet steam engine up. It was going to take a while for her to get her trunk up, so she seized the trolley and wheeled it to the nearest entrance. She grabbed one end of her trunk and lifted it onto the train. She quickly found an empty compartment and started hoisting her trunk up to the rack.

"Need help?" A dark haired boy was watching her from the hall as she struggled with her trunk.

"Yes please," she huffed as she gave the trunk another shove.

"James! Get your lazy but over here, some girl needs our help!" He turned to face Bridget. "Oh, and by the way, the name's Sirius Black." He shrugged a shoulder at the boy who had just joined them, "and this is James Potter." All three of them heaved and the trunk slid onto the rack smoothly.

"Thanks." She swept her bangs off to one side and held out her hand to Sirius. "Bridget McGuire."

"McGuire? Is your father Gus McGuire?" asked James. He shoved his glasses up his nose and heaved his trunk next to Bridget's.

"Yeah."

He nodded. "That's cool. My parents went to fundraiser your mom hosted last summer. The one in Wales?"

"Oh, yeah! I heard that there was supposed to be _dragons_ there!" Sirius said excitedly.

"There were! It was so awesome! We got to see the dragon tamers perform!" exclaimed Bridget. "You should've seen it! They flew the dragons right over our heads!"

"Are you serious? That's fantastic!" said James.

Bridget nodded fervently. "The dragon part was fun, but the rest was boring." She pulled a face. "No kids to play with."

"That stinks." Sirius shoved his trunk in the overhead and plopped onto a seat. "I was supposed to go, but mummy dearest put me under house arrest." He pulled a face, "I don't think she was too happy when I locked Reggie in a cupboard. Little bugger should've known to keep his nose out of my business."

"Was that before or after you threw darts at your uncle Cygnus' portrait?" asked James.

"After."

"So when did I break the china? I thought that was why you got in trouble, because you took the blame."

"So after I threw darts at uncle Cygnus, I locked Reggie in the cupboard because he was going to tattle, and then when mum started screeching for me, you broke the china so that I could hide, then Kreacher-the mangy rotter-turned me in."

Bridget snorted. He was obviously either ecstatic about Hogwarts, or just plain hyper. Before they knew it, they were all cracking up. She clutched her sides as she tried to contain herself, but the one little snort turned contagious. They all started cracking up, just laughing at themselves.

"You guys are weird." Then she started laughing again.

"Look who's talking!" Sirius joked between laughing fits. He suddenly sprang up. "Who's hungry?"

"ME!" yelled two voices. They sprinted out the compartment and raced each other down the corridors.

Bridget suddenly stopped laughing. "Damn! I totally forgot!"

"What?" Sirius turned around. James stopped a little bit before him and panted.

"My friends! I promised that I would meet them on the train!"

"No problem. We'll find them, ma'am!" Sirius mock-saluted her and started back down the corridor yanking open doors and startling occupants.

"Sirius, wait! You don't even know what they look like!" Bridget braced her back against the wall and slid down the wall laughing. Sirius and James ran back to her and braced their hands on their knees and gave in to another laughing fit.

"Um, can we help you?" Two boys had peeked out of their compartment at the commotion.

"No, we're o-" Bridget started, when Sirius cut in front of her saying, "Actually, we're looking for our friend here, Bridget's friends. You want to help?"

"Yeah, sure!" responded the taller boy of the two. He had sandy hair and amber eyes that were framed by gaunt cheekbones. The other boy was short, with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. He was a bit chubby and looked out of breath.

The taller boy held out his hand, "My name's Remus Lupin." His hand trembled tentatively and he started to withdraw his hand when Sirius grabbed it and pumped it up and down enthusiastically. "Sirius Black! This is James Potter and Bridget McGuire. Who's your friend?"

"Peter Pettigrew. I've heard all about the Black family! Your family is legendary for…" he trailed off at the look on Sirius' face.

"Let's leave my family out of this okay?" Sirius asked. He rubbed his hands together. "Okay, Bridget, what are your friends' names?"

"Lily Evans, Marie Healey, Alice Walters, and Claire Collins." She ticked off the names on her fingers and added, "They should all be in the same compartment. They were saving a space for me before you two came along."

Sirius swept a dramatic bow. "Sirius Black and James Potter, troublemakers at your service."

Bridget giggled. "Very well then! Go find my friends!"

"With your leave Madame! Me, you, and Remus will search the middle part of the train, James and Peter can take the back!"

And so Bridget McGuire met the four boys that would turn her life upside down.

* * *

PLEASE REVIEW!!! 


	2. Chapter 2

Marie sighed and checked her watch. And then remembered that she didn't have one. But she didn't need to know the time to know that Bridget was **late.**Lily came into the carriage, looking a bit disgruntled. Her hair was disheveled and she had the look of a cat that had its tail stepped on.

"Did you find Bridget yet?" she asked. She was genuinely worried; it wasn't like her to not show up.

Lily shook her head. "Nope. I did however, get knocked down by these two complete idiots!" She collapsed onto a seat and began rummaging through her leather bag for her knitting needles. "I mean, who do they think they are? They run me over, ask if I've seen you two then dash off without so much as a thank you! Honestly, I hope I'm in a different house than them!" She shook her head huffily and began counting stitches before throwing the bundle of yarn aside and glaring at it. "And I have no idea why my mother gave me _knitting needles_ for a present! Do I honestly look like a knitting sort of person? I mean-"

Marie and Claire giggled; once Lily got in a rant, she _stayed_ that way for hours.

"Miss me ladies?" Bridget leaned against the doorway to the compartment. Lily's mouth dropped and her eye started twitching.

"YOU." She pointed an accusatory at the people in the doorway.

"Yes, darling, it's me. Remember? Best friend, resident tofu slinger?" Bridget said, a bit confused.

"Not you! Those two!" She motioned at the two dark haired boys.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot! I'd like to introduce you to Sirius Black," the one standing directly behind Bridget nodded his head and smiled, "James Potter," the one with the glasses gave an even broader grin. "Remus Lupin," the tall sandy-haired boy out in the hall gave a small wave. "And Peter Pettigrew. Guys, these are my best friends, Marie Healey, Claire Collins, Alice Walters and Lily Evans." Each girl gave a small wave in return.

"Wait," Lily was growing more and more confused. "You _know_ these people?"

"Yeah! They were the ones who helped me find you guys. There a problem or something?" Bridget shoved her own glasses back up onto her nose and swept her bangs out of her face.

Lily slouched down in her seat and said huffily, "No. Nothing."

"Oh, okay then." She suddenly brightened. "Why don't we all sit together? We can squeeze."

"Yeah!" Sirius bounded into the compartment and plopped himself down on one of the seats. "I'm famished! He sat down next to Alice and held out his hand. "The one and only Sirius Black at your service ma'am." He winked and turned to Bridget. "Whaddya got?"

"Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, Licorice Wands, Pumpkin Pasties, you name it, I got it. Daddy was feeling a bit guilty of making his baby girl go all the way to Switzerland, so I got a bit of pocket money." She smiled wickedly and pulled sweets out of her pockets and tossed them into the middle of a vacant seat.

"Ahh! Gimme!" Sirius whined and reached for a Pumpkin Pasty.

Marie snatched it away. "No way am I letting you eat all that sugar." She stood up and began grabbing sweets and stuffing them in the rubbish bin. The can ate up the sweets immediately, sparing nothing. After it was done, it started coughing up wrappers that Sirius picked up with a dazed expression on his face.

"She did not just do that." He blinked several times before stating, "You're insane."

"Marie, you feeling alright?" Bridget waved a hand in front of Marie's face. "We've been waiting for years to be able to chock down on chocolate on our way to Hogwarts and _you don't want any. _What's the matter? Are you feeling alright?"

"We swore off sweets this summer while you were gone, Bridgie." Claire said apologetically, nervously twisting her sweater in her lap. "Marie told us about this new de-toxic lifestyle and it sounded kind of cool."

"Sorry." Lily looked determinedly at the floor.

"Well, I'm not. All that sugar's bad for you." Marie said stubbornly. "You've been getting sort of chubby lately Bridget."

Bridget felt as if Marie had punched her in the gut. "Okay, that's it then. I can take a hint. I'm leaving. You _guys_ in?" she asked the other four. She looked fiercely at the girls and decided that she didn't feel so nasty about leaving them after all. Marie was holding a Muggle Tupperware full of tofu in her hands and Lily was looking a bit warily at her bag of carrot sticks behind Marie's glowering back.

"Enjoy your food." She said smirking, before Marie slammed the door shut in her face. She took a deep breath. She hated fighting with her friends and she could already feel the tears creep up on her.

"Peter, I hate to break it to you, but dolphins aren't fish." James was shaking his head as he helped lug the trunk down the corridor.

"They are too!" Peter protested. "They can swim! That means they're fish."

"I can swim," Sirius reminded him, "and I'm not fish."

"But you live on land. That's different." Peter said. "Believe me, I read it in a book somewhere."

"But that makes no sense! I can swim as well as a dolphin. Well, okay, not as well, but that doesn't count 'cause I don't have flippers."

"You live on land!"

"I can swim!"

"YOU LIVE ON LAND!" Peter shouted.

Sirius shook his head sadly. "You, my friend, are a piece of work."

A couple hours later the five were sitting in their compartment. Peter was reading _The Daily Prophet_ to which he claimed that he was an avid subscriber. Remus, James, and Sirius were all betting Chocolate Frogs on various topics such as: whether or not James could hit Marie with a glob of pepper-flavoured Bertie Botts Beans that they had mashed up to look like tofu (he missed; he hit Lily's hair instead and had to run for his life), who would win the next game of Exploding Snap, and how long would it take before Bridget broke down and took her nose out of her bloody book to have a good cry.

James reached for some Pumpkin Pasties and tossed them on the pile.

He leaned forward and whispered inaudibly to everyone but Sirius, "Subtract another thirty minutes from my bet."

Sirius shrugged and secretly scribbled it on the back of a Licorice Wand wrapper.

The cards suddenly exploded and left James coughing dust and smoke as Sirius rounded up the cards for another round.

"You okay, Bridget?" Sirius asked. She had been sitting in a corner by the window determinedly keeping her eyes on her book, ignoring and declining all his insane requests.

"Yeah." She put down her book and popped the cap off a water bottle. She inhaled then took a deep swig.

"Okay, then when you want to tell us what's bothering you then-" Sirius said slyly returning his gaze to the cards in his hands.

Bridget blurted, "It's Marie."

"That was fast," Sirius said in an undertone to James. James snorted and gave his cards to Sirius and raked in all of the sweets onto his lap.

"I have no idea what has gotten into her! I mean, she has _Lily_ eating veggies! And Lily is the most fierce, loyal, outspoken carnivore I know! You guys would love her! And Claire, Claire is usually so _smart_ and realistic! She doesn't think about the group sticking together that much; she usually picks the right choice!" She was absolutely fuming now. She was gesturing wildly with her hands, splashing water everywhere.

"Alice Walters is one of the most hilarious people you'll ever meet! She's always tripping over her feet, or helping someone else up off the ground; she's sweet and kind and thoughtful. This whole tofu thing is so confusing!" Bridget took a deep breath before letting it out slowly.

"I don't know what's wrong with Marie. We've all been best friends since we could talk. I don't know why she's choosing to act like this. I don't know if it's jealousy, or maybe she feels like I'm ignoring them, but it's not fair! Papa always has to drag us off for one event or another and-" She took another shuddery breath. "I feel like I'm being a bad friend, I don't know what I did wrong. It's just not fair! And the worst part is, is that I feel bad for abandoning them just because you guys have already been great friends to me and I feel guilty about liking you guys more than them now and-"

Sirius shook her shoulders. "Relax. You've guys have got history together. And nothing can erase that. Marie was just being a (Sirius swore here) things will get better. Believe me."

"How the hell do you know?" Bridget asked. She slumped against James' shoulder and he patted her head sympathetically.

"He's Sirius Black. That means he's a best friend, psychic, and therapist, all in one." James said simply.

"If your friends have half a brain all put together, they'll realize that Marie is being petty and jealous because, as it was just announced in the paper yesterday, the McGuire family's old Wizarding Stock on the World Wide Gringotts Bank, WWGB, has just fallen five points forcing the Healey family's stock points to hit an all time low, making them the sixth most profitable company in England and forty-third in the world."

Remus put down his hand of cards and asked, "What are you talking about? We don't talk WWGB-whatever that is-speak, Peter."

Peter explained, "Mr. McGuire-in a completely brilliant financial move- demolished one of his smaller companies put the entire stock up for sale. The prices went up in record timing and finally sold out to the Healey family. However, as soon as they bought the company, prices plummeted dramatically." He shook his head in regret. "People don't trust the Healey brand anymore. Mr. McGuire then sold all his remaining stock off to the WWGB Goblin Committee- or the WWGBGC for short- and pulled out quickly just as the market nearly crashed. But don't worry, it's back up again. That all happened this summer; nearly destroyed the economy at first, but then it came back stronger than ever. Everyone else came out richer except for the Healey family who sold and ran, right after the stock went down, and just before the stock went up." Peter snapped _The Daily Prophet_ taut and disappeared behind the headlines.

"Wow, okay! Great, thanks Peter! I still don't understand anything you just said, but I'm guessing that Bridget's richer than Marie!" Sirius clapped his hands together. "So now you know why your friend Marie is having a bit of trouble coughing up whatever hairball she's swallowed."

"Still doesn't solve much, does it though. I have no idea how to approach this." Bridget moaned.

"Ignore it. Ignore the fact that your father just nearly bankrupted the Healeys and just pretend like it didn't happen. Convince her that you know why she was mad at you. When you hug and make-up just say, 'Aw, Marie, I'm so sorry that you all felt abandoned over the summer' and that sort of stuff. Believe me, you'll both feel better for it, _and_ you'll get sufficient payback."

"Actually, I think now we have to give the shrink title to Dr. Lupin over here," James said, nudging Remus in the side.

Bridget broke into a grin and suffocated Remus in a hug. "Thank you so much!" She pulled back and then grabbed the cards off the table. "Marie won't know what hit her. Now, as an apology for being so sluggish, I believe I owe you some games of Exploding Snap?" She shuffled and bridged the cards in mid-air.

"I'm in!" Peter said quickly, and tossed his newspaper aside.

"There's the brave Bridget that we've known for all of three hours," Remus said grinning from ear to ear.

"And we already like you," said James punching her on the shoulder.

"Aw, same here you softies." She said laughing. She truly felt as at home with them as she did with Lily, Marie, Alice and Claire. Actually it felt better.

_Maybe that's what my old friendship needed all along. New friends. _

An hour later, Marie poked her head in and said stiffly, "We're arriving in another half hour. Bridget, come with me."

Bridget felt her blood begin to boil. Marie had crossed the line; _no one_ was going to order her around today.

"No. You're being a bitch and right now, I'm sick and tired of your attitude. You've been nothing but mean for the five minutes I've been able to spend with you, and those five minutes have been enough. You, Alice, Lily, and Claire and all those other guys can do whatever the hell you want. I'm staying here." She put her hands on her hips. If Marie wanted a fight, she could come and get it.

"Yeah, right. With all these boys?" Marie scoffed. "C'mon, just come with me and we'll work it out."

Bridget took out her and wand and pointed it at Marie. She was royally pissed now and no matter what it took, she was going to remind her that Bridget Lisa McGuire wasn't someone Marie could step on; making-up and apologizing could wait until later.

"No. Now get out before I hex you to the next century."

"You don't even know how to make tea with that thing." Marie scoffed.

"Newsflash, I'm not a Pure-blood for nothing. And as Daddy's little girl," She glared at Marie to make sure she got the threat; "I've learned a few nasty little tricks."

Marie just huffed and stormed out of the compartment.

"Well done. I hope you don't plan on talking to her ever again, but good job." Sirius said, mildly impressed. "You looked just like my cousin Bellatrix if she had ever been a decent person, wore glasses, and was a skinny looking grasshopper."

Bridget shot a death glare at him. "It's not funny! What if I'm Sorted into Slytherin because of that?"

"It's a just a joke! Don't kill me woman!" He mock pleaded and threw himself at her knees. He gave her a wounded puppy look and said, "I'm too handsome to die."

Remus snorted into his robes as he pulled them over his head. "Please kill him. His ego's big enough."

James, Bridget, and Peter started laughing as the train slowed to a stop at the station.

* * *

_Whoa._Remus was in complete shock. His mum and dad had told him about Hogwarts, but he had never imagined that it would be like _this._

Ghosts floated around, more kids in pointy black hats that he had seen in his entire life, and he had just witnessed a hat sing a song about the next seven years of his life.

Right now, 'Whoa' pretty much summed up everything.

They had made it okay across the lake. It was silently agreed on that Bridget would ride with James and Sirius, protecting and distracting her from the death glares that came from a select few girls. They had waited nervously in the hall, until Professor McGonagall had come out to take them inside and introduce them to the Sorting Hat.

The Sorting started out with this kid called Avery-something, who the Hat promptly whisked away into Slytherin. Was it just Remus' imagination, or was the Sorting going faster now?

The first boy tripped up to the stool and dropped the Hat on his head.

"Axel, Dwight!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Beale, Allison!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Belairia, Porscha!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Black, Narcissa!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Black, Sirius!"

Sirius walked up to the Hat and eyed it warily. Remus could tell that he was doubtful of letting a _Hat_ decide his future to say the least. He lifted it up and with an exaggerated sigh, shoved it on his head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The Hat announced. Sirius took off the Hat and after smirking at the bewildered Slytherin table, proudly stalked off to Gryffindor, where he was slapped on the back by some older students he had encountered on the train.

"Bolton, Todd!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Christian, Adrian!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Connor, Clive!"

A tired, sickly looking boy with a rash on his skin limped up to the Hat and tried it on.

"Doesn't look like he'll last long." Remus muttered to James.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Collins, Claire!"

Bridget's friend from the train walked up to the Hat, stumbling on the hem of her robe several times on the way there. She took the Hat from McGonagall then placed it tentatively on her head.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Claire looked relieved as she handed back the Hat and walked to the Ravenclaw table. Remus glanced at Marie. She looked ready to hack the Hat to pieces and feed it to the Giant Squid.

"Dawn, Rae!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Eiffel, Devin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Remus watched the Hat sort Lily Evans and Fern Freeman into Gryffindor, Holly Freeze and Cara Fuller into Hufflepuff and Jack Hausen into Ravenclaw, when he heard:

"Healey, Marie!"

She sauntered up to the Hat and shoved it on.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Like we didn't see that one coming," James whispered in Remus' ear eliciting a snort from Remus.

"Healey, Morgan!"

A girl who looked sickeningly like Marie sauntered up the Hat and tried it on.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Howard, Jill!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Jaxley, Taryn!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Jerome, Miles!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Karl, Brendan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Kelpie, Amy!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Lestrange, Rodolphus!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Lien, Cassie!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Lien, Tom!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Lupin, Remus!"

Remus gulped and walked nervously up to the Hat. All rationale left his thoughts. What if he wasn't accepted? What if the Hat told him he couldn't go to Hogwarts because he was a werewolf?

_Let's get this over with, _he thought and closed his eyes tightly as he dropped the Hat onto his head.

It had barely been there five seconds when the Hat screamed:

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Remus was stunned happy. The Hat hadn't even said anything to him! He grinned and passed the Hat off to Bridget who was looking a little green around the gills.

She shoved the Hat onto her head with a 'You-win-some-you-lose-some' expression.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Remus applauded with Sirius, Lily, and two girls named Rae Dawn and Fern Freeman, along with the rest of the Gryffindor House as Bridget sprinted down to where Sirius and Remus sat.

"Pettigrew, Peter!"

Peter stumbled eagerly up to the Hat and crammed it on.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Potter, James!"

James walked up, put the Hat on and sat on the stool and tightly gripped the edges. Remus couldn't help but envy him; he had to admit that only James could make a totally nerve-wracking experience look totally cool.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

He handed it to Evan Rosier (who the Hat Sorted into Slytherin) and ran to where they were sitting.

"Snape, Severus!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"He looks a bit twisted," Bridget muttered in an undertone to those at the table. There was only one way to describe Snape- greasy. He had long greasy hair, a big, greasy nose and his robes were a bit frayed around the edges.

Lily scrunched up her face and picked a chunk of Bertie Botts she had found in one curl from her hair. "Ew, yeah."

Bridget turned to face her. "Ew, what? Your hair or that Snake?"

"SHH!" Remus quickly cut off Bridget and patted a distressed Lily comfortingly on her shoulder.

"Tern, Wesley!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Trails, Quinn!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Traung, Zsa Zsa!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Traverse, Liam!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Walters, Alice!"

The girl who had been with Marie, Lily, and Claire on the train walked nervously up to the Hat.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Lily cheered while Bridget, still a bit put off at the girls, sat back and half-heartedly clapped.

Finally, when McGonagall called the last name, ("Yi, Courtney!" Ravenclaw) Dumbledore stood up to talk.

"I am sure you are all ready to pass out from starvation, so as always I have only two words for you: dig in." Dumbledore clapped his hands once, than sat down.

Food appeared on the table and the newly sorted first years gasped with delight. Delicious, mouth-watering treats and entrées were quickly dished out onto plates and consumed.

After the feast Professor Dumbledore gave out announcements and sent them off to bed.

While stumbling along after the Prefects, Bridget yawned deeply. "I am so screwed."

"Why?" Sirius was walking beside her, looking as wide-awake as he probably did at three in the afternoon instead of at eleven at night.

"Um, Bridget, can we talk to you?" Lily tapped her on her shoulder.

"Yeah, listen I'm sorry." Bridget said quickly. She had decided long ago that she was better at fighting than apologizing and decided to get it over with.

"We're sorry too. Friends?" Alice asked hopefully.

"You always are, and always were." She pulled them in for a quick hug. "Now who's going to help poor me get around the castle?"

"Yeah, what's with that? A little spoiled there, McGuire!" James said and nudged Bridget in the side. "We're not here to wait on you hand and foot you know."

"Well then I hope that you don't mind seeing me ever again. I'm going to get lost in the castle and in three months time you'll probably see my body wasting away in some dungeon…" Bridget moaned.

"Can't find your way out of a paper bag, eh?" Remus asked. "No worries, I can't either."

"More like she can't find her way out with a map, compass and three neon signs saying, "THIS WAY". She's absolutely hopeless. Her maid helps her find the breakfast hall in that mausoleum she calls a home. I don't even live there and I know my way around better than she does." Lily said.

"Okay! Okay! I think that we've all illustrated how the wrong way Hitachi's came to be!" Bridget snapped. "I can't help it!" She said pleadingly.

The Prefect turned another corner and Peter groaned. "How much further is it? I'm ready to pass out!"

Clive Connor, the boy in front of him stopped and Peter accidentally knocked into him, knocking Clive down. "Oh, I'm sorry! You okay?" Peter pulled him to his feet.

"Yeah, fine. Hey! We're here. Look's like there's a line though." He said, unnecessarily pointing out this random fact. "Hey, do you guys mind if I sleep on the floor?" Clive asked. He absently scratched his arm.

Sirius cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "Um, why?"

"I've got a bad back, and it's usually better if I kip on the floor. Sorry if you guys think that it's strange or anything, but…"

"Wha-"

"Hey! No problem." Remus cut in front of Sirius and stepped on his foot. "Yeah, um, do you have a sleeping bag or how are you going to do this?"

"Sleeping bag. I can't wait to get out of this place though! It's so depressing." Clive changed the topic quickly and stepped through the portrait hole. However, if he had been hoping that the rest of the Gryffindor boys would support him in this, he was sorely mistaken.

"You can't wait? Well, hope you didn't get your hopes up, 'because you've got another full seven years ahead of school, you know." James said. He stepped through the portrait hole and waited for Sirius to come in after him.

"Yeah, but mum said that as soon as dad released custody she'd take me on her safari in Africa." Clive said, his eyes shining with excitement.

Sirius shrugged. "Cool."

As soon as the last person got into the common room, the Prefect made introductions and showed them where their rooms were. Remus, Peter, Sirius and James all raced towards their new dormitory.

"I call that one!" Remus yelled.

"I got this one!" Sirius jumped up onto the bed closest to the window.

"I call this one!" James yelled.

"Sweet! Ha ha! I guess I lucked out then!" Peter joked.

"Um, you got the one near the door, Pete." James pointed out.

"Yeah, but look who you're sleeping next to." Peter smirked and pointed to the sleeping bag situated between James and Sirius' beds. Unbeknownst to them, Clive had already set up his sleeping space on the floor.

"Aww, man!" Sirius groaned and flopped down defeated.

James groaned, "It's gonna be a looonngg night."

"If you want to live, you'll pass over the coffee." Bridget glared at a bunch of seventh years sitting next to them; she wasn't sure if it was her bedraggled state or her evil glare that made them give up the coffee jug, milk, sugar, cream and donuts without a fight.

Her first night at Hogwarts had just passed, and Bridget was already convinced that the Gryffindor girls were all eventually going to kill each other.

First, they had fought over the good bed by the window. Or as they put it, "diplomatically discussed territorial issues." _Territorial issues my ass._

Then came the gossip, the whispers, and the giggles, the late night trips to the bathroom to wash off a face mask or to re-braid hair. Then, just when Bridget thought that things could not possibly get any worse, the light had flipped on and Dawn Rae screamed at Fern Freeman to shut up and to stay away from Sirius Black and how come Fern thought she could be so dam special, because wasn't it obvious that Sirius liked her?

Then Lily and Alice had joined in the brawl, complaining about beauty sleep, something about it being three o'clock in the morning and cats.

After that, it had taken Bridget about ten minutes to get out of bed, stare each girl down until they were sitting quietly on their beds and give a small lecture on how there was a time for everything, and how now was a time for sleeping, not fighting. She then falsely informed them that Sirius probably didn't even know that they were alive, and that all his attention was focused on Marie Healey.

She had then picked Bisou up off the floor and pulled her in for a cuddle. Needless to say, the angry whispers that punctured the night were music to Bridget's ears and she quickly fell asleep.

But apparently, like some members of the Insomniacs Club like to say, sleep is for the weak. Fern, Dawn, Lily and Alice were up at the crack of dawn, primping and preparing for an exciting day of- oh boy! Lessons!

It wasn't until eight thirty when they had all left the room, giggling and chatting, when Bridget had dragged herself out of bed, dragged a brush through her hair and rolled out the door, looking like a train wreck. Then, as Bisou had been running excitedly by her ankles in the common room, she had tripped over the Corgi and landed face down right in front of the boy's staircase. And to make matters worse, Sirius had chosen that precise moment to go down to breakfast and had tripped right over her.

"What a great way to start the day," he had groaned.

"Rough night?" Bridget had asked as she rolled over.

"Yep."

"Me too."

* * *

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	3. Chapter 3

"Finally! The weekend! A time to relax, breathe and catch up with our friends after being separated for so long…"

"Shut it, Sirius; first of all, it's only our, what? Sixth week of school? Second of all, in case you haven't noticed, we've only spent every past waking moment with you!" James said grumpily while rolling up Clive's sleeping bag. Clive had declared that he didn't need it. His mother was picking him up in another week to take him to Africa, and apparently, they slept under the stars there, in the freezing cold weather, without sleeping bags. Needless to say, the boys were having trouble understanding Clive.

"I've got popcorn!" Bridget sang and sauntered into the room. She held a large bowl of popcorn in one hand and a pitcher of pumpkin juice in the other. She sat down and plopped the bowl in the center of the room where they were "making camp." Sirius had lugged down a mattress and the others brought down their comforters off their beds. Scattered around the center was various bowls of sweets and candies and a blank sheet of parchment on a clipboard.

"I call the court to disorder!" Remus joked and sat down and grabbed the clipboard.

Peter made a face. "That one was a dud."

"You got a better one?" Remus asked and tore off a piece of Chocolate Frog.

"Well, no…" Peter said slowly.

Sirius cut across, "Well, then, listen to this one-

So, two men were sitting next to each other at a bar.

After a while, one guy looks at the other and says, 'I can't help but think, from listening to you, that you're from Ireland.'

The other guy responds proudly, 'Yes that I am!'

The first guy says, 'So am I! And whereabouts from Ireland might you be?'

The other guy answers, 'I'm from Dublin, I am.'

The first guy responds, 'Sure and begora, and so am I! And what street did you live on in Dublin?'

The other guy says, 'A lovely little area it was, I lived on McCleary Street in the old central part of town.'

The first guy says, 'Faith, it's a small world! So did I! So did I!'

'And to what school would you have been going?'

The other guy answers, 'Well now, I went to St. Mary's of course.'

The first guy gets really excited and says, 'And so did I!'

He then says, 'Tell me, what year did you graduate?'

The other guy answers, 'Well, now, let's see, I graduated in 1964.'

The first guy exclaims, 'The Good Lord must be smiling down upon us! I can hardly believe our good luck at winding up in the same bar tonight! Can you believe it - I graduated from St. Mary's in 1964 my own self!'

About this time, a guy named Vicky walks into the bar, sits down, and orders a beer. Brian, the bartender, walks over to Vicky, shaking his head and mutters,

'It's going to be a long night tonight!'

Vicky asks, 'Why do you say that, Brian?'

'The Kelly twins are drunk again.'

They all burst out laughing. James was holding his sides and hanging off his bed he was laughing so hard, Peter looked ready to die from lack of oxygen and both Remus' and Bridget's faces were bright red.

"Oh god, that's a good one." James laughed.

"Yeah, well, it's takes a genius!" He stood up and gave a flourishing bow. "So anyways, let's get to business!"

"Whose turn is it now?" Peter asked. Sirius scanned the list of Slytherins.

"Um, we've gone through them all actually, I believe Snape the Snake was the last one on our list…" Sirius said frowning.

"Are you kidding me? Well then, on to the big leagues." James exclaimed excitedly. A maniacal gleam appeared in his eye.

"This time, we're going for something big! Something huge! A group prank on all the Slytherins. Let's go…"

"Where's Bridget?" asked Lily. She looked up from her textbook and gazed despondently at the blank wall across from her. "This is just sad. It's a Friday night for God's sake! We should be out partying! Watching a Quidditch match! Sprinting down the hall in our nightgowns singing the Canadian national anthem! Something other than, than-_studying."_ She looked around in disgust at the girls. Rae and Fern were taking turns practicing turning matchsticks into needles, Alice was mouthing the incantation to a levitation charm and Lily herself was doing homework.

"She's in the boy's dorm again." Rae said with a certain amount of disgust. "She's been practically inseparable from Sirius, James, Remus and Peter. It's improper if you ask me." She gave a small sniff of disgust while her facial expression showed that _she_ wouldn't mind spending some quality time with the "cutest guys on the face of the whole earth".

"Oh that's just great! I wonder what they're planning this time." Lily groaned. "I feel bad for that Snape kid."

"Ew, Snape the Snake?" Alice made a face.

"Yeah, that's the one."

"Nasty." She rolled over and tossed her book over on the side table and replaced it with a Witch Weekly issue.

Lily felt like crying. She had never felt so torn apart before in her life. She hated Marie for making Bridget mad at her, she hated Claire for ignoring her, but most of all she hated Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin and James Bloody Potter. She tried to ignore the nagging tug of jealousy that wrestled with her emotions. Bridget hadn't spent one Friday night with the girls. She was always running off, breaking curfew or sneaking into the Gryffindor boys' dorm room for overnighters. Nasty rumors flew all around Gryffindor Tower about Bridget. Lily had overheard one of the seventh years suggest that Bridget was taking turns- She shuddered. Nasty.

"I'm going for a walk. Anyone in?" Lily walked over to her trunk and pulled out one of her favorite dingy sweatshirts.

"Nah, it's got to be about minus five degrees outside." Rae speared another needle on her pincushion.

"Okay then, fine. See you all later."

She sprinted down the hallways, checking over her shoulder for patrolling Prefects, teachers, and worst of all, Peeves. She strolled about a bit in the courtyard before deciding to take a lap around the lake. Lily crossed her arms over her chest and shivered. Rae wasn't kidding when she said "minus five degrees".

The night was chilly; the air was sharp and crystalline. It was a horrible night to be out of the castle. She was one-fourth of the way around the lake when-

"Oof!" She tripped and went sprawling onto a bed of small, sharp rocks.

"S-s-sorry." The lump stammered.

_What the? _She pushed herself up and turned the lump over to find, Connor Clive huddled up in a sleeping bag.

"Connor! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing? You're going to freeze out here!" She exclaimed. She was absolutely horrified to see him lying outside. "Did Black kick you out? No? Well then, who? Potter? Lupin? Pettigrew? McGuire?" She rattled off the names of the current occupants of the boy's dormitory.

"No one! This is great training for when-" The rest of his speech was cut off with a hacking cough.

"You've obviously hit your head on something, Connor. C'mon, let's go see Madame Pomfrey."

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT YOU FOUND HIM SLEEPING OUTSIDE?!"

Lily had no choice but to cower before the awesome power and rage of one Madame Pomfrey.

She turned to the sickly boy lying nestled in blankets. "And you!" She lowered her voice to a furious whisper. "And you! Actually thinking that you could handle it! Well, just last week you were in here recovering from a bad case of the Muggle chicken pox! AND the week before that you decided it was a good idea to go and bond with one of Professor Sprout's Venomous Tentaculas! Do you have a death wish, Mr. Clive?!"

"Baby!" Lily turned around to see who she presumed was Connor's mother, sprint across the room and engulf her son in a hug. "That's it darling! We're taking you out of this school. It's far too dangerous for a boy like you; Mummy will take you to Africa!" She hugged him tighter. "Sweetheart, can you imagine it? Africa! The weather will help improve your health by thousands!" She let go of Clive, who was now looking positively joyous, to shake Lily's hand and engulf her in a hug.

"Oh, so you're the angel who brought my son to Madame Pomfrey here! Professor Dumbledore told me all about you! Thank you so much! You saved my baby's life!"

"Mum!" Connor complained.

"Oh, sorry dear! He hates it when I embarrass him in front of his friends," Mrs. Clive whispered in an undertone to Lily.

"Oh, well, ha ha, it's no problem." Said Lily weakly, a bit embarrassed by the situation. She wasn't about to break it to Mrs. Clive that she- along with the rest of the Gryffindor house- thought Connor a bit, well, _odd._

"Oh! And thank you so much for looking after Connor, Poppy. It means the world to me that a friend is looking after him at Hogwarts." She gave Madame Pomfrey a hug. "I got that beautiful letter that you sent me. I swear if you weren't such a good Healer, I would send you to a publishing company so fast!"

Madame Pomfrey chuckled and shook her head good naturedly. "Writing was never really in my blood, Caitlin. I'm much happier here. Come, Miss Evans; we'll leave Mr. Clive and his mother alone." She ushered Lily through the door to her office.

"Madame Pomfrey," Lily began hesitantly, "I was wondering if, um, you know what the matter with Remus' mum is. He wouldn't tell us why, or what's bothering her, and he looked a little beat up when he came back, and I was just wondering-"

"Oh, Mrs. Lupin just catches a little bug once in a while, no need to worry Ms. Evans." Madame Pomfrey said hurriedly. "Quite common, now please scurry along back to your House. Needless to say, your dorm mates are probably very worried about you. Oh here, take this note; if Mr. Filch bothers you just hand him this and explain you've been performing a service to the school." She ushered Lily out of her office and out of the hospital wing. "Goodnight, Ms. Evans."

"Goodnight."

* * *

The next morning Lily was up early after a long night of regaling the girls with tales of her rescue of Connor. They chattered as they made their way down to breakfast; Lily noticed that Bridget was curiously absent from their group.

They sat down at the Gryffindor table and were about to chow down when she saw a group of extremely tired looking Slytherins walk in and sit down. Almost simultaneously, James Potter appeared at her elbow and plopped down next to her with Bridget and Sirius on his right side.

"I'm absolutely starved. What are you having, Evans?" James said as he nicked some bacon off her plate.

Lily ignored him and instead asked, "Where were you last night, Bridget?"

"In the boys' dorm; we had some stuff to talk about." She said vaguely as she shook cinnamon into her oatmeal. "I heard about Connor- bummer. Good for you though!" She seemed strangely overly occupied with her breakfast.

Black nudged Bridget in the side and whispered something in her ear. She grinned, pulled out a mirror and made a show out of arranging her hair. Lily shot a discrete look at Remus; he looked oddly pleased, but his expression was hidden more than Black's whose face showed outright glee.

Lily craned her neck to see who the object of their amusement would be this morning. She absolutely hated it when they pulled cruel pranks on people. She didn't really get it- why did they think it was so hilarious? Sure, they had gotten tons of attention for it already, but it wasn't like it was a way of life. Lily spotted Severus walking into the hall.

_Oh no…_ Severus had been the brunt of many of Black and Potter's cruel jokes. Unfortunately, he had deserved them… It was time to take action.

"Why can't you just leave him alone, Potter!?" She got up and turned him around so that he was facing her. "Why him?"

He gave a wolf whistle. "Oh la la! Evans and Snape! You got a thing for greasy Slytherins, Evans?" Snape froze and Lily blushed a violent shade of red.

"Evans and Snapey, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Wow, Evans, guess we know who your Valentine's going to be in February!" He laughed enjoying the look of embarrassment on her face. Lily turned an even deeper shade of red.

"Why do you have to be such a git, Potter!" She slapped him clear across his face.

"Grow up, Potter." She snarled.

"No need to, I'm only eleven. I'm as old as I want to be right now, Evans. Now how about you just simmer down? It seems to me that you're the one overreacting." He turned away from her and kept his eyes trailed on Snape. Lily was fuming. She picked up her plate and stormed over to the other side of the table, Alice following in her wake. Claire caught her eye from over at the Ravenclaw table and raised an eyebrow. Lily merely nodded and kept her eyes on her food after that. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. _I can't believe I just did that. _She ate a piece of toast and ignored the curious stares from her fellow Gryffindors.

She was about to get up and leave breakfast when she heard an awful screeching sound. She whipped around, only to find the entire Slytherin House in the act of having the all the benches pull out from beneath them. Many of the girls were moaning and trying to brush the food off of their robes, while the guys started swearing quite colorfully. Lily couldn't help but stare at Potter and his friends. How on earth had they managed to do that? She couldn't believe that they had charmed the benches to pull out from underneath the Slytherins just as the last person sat down at the table. It _was_ a rather impressive piece of magic, she had to admit. Many of the other students started to clap, and soon the applause was tumultuous.

* * *

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	4. Chapter 4

The year passed by quickly and steadily. Bridget, Peter, Remus, James, and Sirius soon became inseparable through their pranks and antics. Bridget's friends caught on quickly to Bridget's friendship with the four boys and were quietly resentful of them. Lily held an exceptional hatred for James in particular, but no one really knew why. The five girls were drifting apart and it seemed like there was nothing they could do about it. Spring lost its bounce; the days seemed dead. Even James and Sirius accepted the stormy mood that enveloped the castle.

About two weeks into April, they were all shocked to see Connor's smiling face on the front page of the Daily Prophet.

Under the title "Twenty Found Murdered in South Africa".

The date was April eighteenth and it was Bridget's birthday. Needless to say, there were no celebrations that day.

Exams came and went, and so did the time. But on this rare, sunny day somewhere in Scotland, the Marauders (as they had been dubbed by Professor McGonagall) were in the library of all places. Rarer still, was the fact that they were actually in there for something other than pranks and homework. And the rarest factor of all was that they were in the library and Remus was nowhere in sight. But as Sirius defended it, it wasn't as if they were causing mischief by forging a teacher's signature to get into the Restricted Section.

"Pass me that book over there will you, Bridget?" James asked.

"Peter-" she began.

"You get it. I'm busy over here!" he protested.

"Fine!" She reached over and passed the book to James.

"Now, that wasn't too hard for the little princess, no?" Peter asked.

Bridget stuck her tongue out at him. "Humph."

Peter resumed his job of meticulously copying down information onto several different charts. He frowned and scratched out another date onto the calendar.

"Sirius, when's the next full moon?" he asked casually.

"Why?"

"Because Remus is a werewolf." He said this with such finality that Sirius didn't need to see the calendar to figure out that Peter wasn't joking.

Fear and concern was etched on every face.

"Full moon is tomorrow night. I'll follow him," Bridget said. "James will be too obvious even if he wears the cloak. Remus always seems to know whenever we're under it. Sirius, no offense, but you know you're rather loud. And well, Peter, you'd fall asleep. I'll go. I need to see this for myself."

"Okay."

* * *

Bridget crept silently down the deserted corridor. She thanked God that her escapades with her fellow Marauders almost always landed her in the hospital wing. It was the only familiar place to her other than the Gryffindor common room. If Remus had been anywhere else in the castle, she would've been lost. She heard footsteps and hid behind a suit of armor. Dusk was settling in, and the moon was due to rise at any second, she noted.

Madame Pomfrey led Remus down corridor after corridor. Bridget hoped that she would come back as soon as Remus was done; there was no way she would be able to find her way back by herself.

They were outside now. _Wait, why were they heading towards the Whomping Willow? _Madame Pomfrey shot a spell at a knot on the violent tree and it suddenly froze. While she and Remus descended into a small tunnel that had appeared, Bridget seized the opportunity and sprinted the ten yards to secure a good hiding spot in roots of the tree. She settled herself down in the crack in between two large roots and pulled some shrubbery closer to her. She had barely enough time to duck behind the bushes before Madame Pomfrey exited the tunnel. The matron scurried back into the castle as quickly as she could. As soon as her retreating back was out of sight, Bridget stretched out her legs and waited for something to happen.

Then she heard it, the bloodcurdling cry of someone who feels constant, agonizing, crippling pain. The sound ripped through her head like a gunshot.

More crying. The cry was softer now, more muted. She bristled; the sobbing cry now sounded more like a snarl. Her breath came and went in short, shallow breaths. Nothing seemed to be working right. Her brain screamed at her to run, but her legs refused to move. She quaked with fear as the snarls became more and more ferocious and hostile. Silence. She quickly pulled her legs up to her chest, and rocked herself back and forth, back and forth. She squeezed her eyes closed and blocked out the sounds of Remus' snarls and howls. Bridget rocked and rocked, until she finally found comfort in the illusive shores of the land of sweet dreams.

* * *

"And you said that _I_ was going to fall asleep." A voice startled her awake. Why was the world so fuzzy? She tried to sit up, but her throbbing temples wouldn't allow it. Pain took the form of a sledgehammer on her head. Where was she? And why couldn't she see? She felt around with her hand until she made contact with her glasses. She shoved them onto her nose and squinted up at the three boys standing above her. Peter was grinning like a fool, glad to have caught her off guard. Sirius for once looked very serious as he stood there, arms folded. James handed her a mug of coffee and sat down on the ground next to her.

"Thanks," she managed to croak out. She took a deep sip of the rich, black liquid. It was like whiskey for a drunkard. She grabbed the mug with two hands and chugged it down.

"You know if you keep drinking that stuff every morning you're going to be shorter than Peter, right?" James smiled, took the coffee cup away, and replaced it with a bowl of oatmeal.

"Where are we? H- how did you get me out from under the Willow?" Bridget asked. They were sitting on the floor of a classroom that Bridget didn't recognize. The room was covered in deep red wall paper and had small, round tables scattered around the room. The carpet was black and so was everything else. All of the tables, chairs, shelves and the desk were black.

"We're in the Divination classroom in the highest tower," Sirius said and made a sweeping gesture with his hand. "This is Professor Redlines' classroom. You know the wacko with the beret? I guess he actually teaches here."

Peter brought over some pillows and James plopped his book bag down and opened it to reveal… breakfast. Bridget was starving; she grabbed a muffin and took a big bite.

"Believe me; getting you up here, up all those stairs, wasn't easy." Sirius took a bite out of an apple from James' bag.

"We already visited Remus in the hospital wing." Peter informed her.

"Oh."

"Sorry," Peter mumbled. "Did you want us to wait for you to wake up?"

"Oh, no; it's okay. Is he okay?" she asked tentatively.

"He looks horrible," James admitted quietly. "He wanted to transfer schools when we told him, but we set him straight."

"We've got to do something to help him!" Sirius said passionately. He got up and started pacing the room.

"We're going to be there for him. _Every_ full moon, _every_ day after. Hell, I'll sit out all night next to the Willow if I have too."

"We'll find out every nook and cranny there is to Hogwarts, we'll search the Forbidden Forest! We've got to make his time at Hogwarts the best!" James added excitedly.

"Maybe we can figure out a way to be with him, during the full moon?" Bridget suggested. "It must be possible. He sounded so _lonely_ down there. Maybe that's the real pain."

"Now that we know, we can stop wasting time." Sirius stopped pacing and lowered his head dejectedly. "No eleven-year-old should have to deal with being a werewolf."

* * *

You know that you want to leave me a review. ) 


	5. Chapter 5

Bridget sprinted down the empty corridor. She had… five minutes until the Hogwarts Express left without her. She skidded around another corner and looked right, left. Her face fell. She was _doomed._Nothing was familiar about this part of the castle; the paintings sneered sinisterly and the heads on the suits of armor watched her every move.

_A staircase! _She took the steps two at a time. Suddenly, the staircase gave a jolt and started to swing.

"Shit!" She screamed and started to scramble up the stairs before it left the landing completely. But it was too late. The staircase swung completely around to the other side than started to _stretch upwards. _Bridget stared in disbelief. She really hadn't seen that coming. _Stupid stairs. _It continued to get longer and longer until it arrived about three stories higher than the floor it had originally been at. She sighed and started climbing; there was no use now but to find the Headmaster's office and explain what had happened.

* * *

"_Sock! Robe! Hat! UNDERWEAR! You know, that's just plain disgusting, Sirius!" Bridget was halfway under Sirius' bed in the boys' dormitory, fishing out lost and forgotten articles of clothing from underneath his bed. She got up and stretched out her stiff back. "That's it, get your own bloody underwear, there's no way on earth I'm touching that thing." She gathered her own pile of dirty laundry from off of Clive's old bed and dumped it in her cauldron. She couldn't help staring at the bed. The boys had kept it immaculately clean and untouched since Clive's death and the empty bed kept calling for attention. _

"_It feels desolate, doesn't it?" Remus asked softly and put an arm around her shoulder. So he had noticed. _

"_It shouldn't stay that empty, it doesn't feel right. It's a hole." She explained. "Mother always said that when someone died, you can't keep everything unfinished; you have to fill in the holes they've left behind."_

"_Why don't you have it then?" Peter suggested. "You know, next year when we come back you can sleep there; sort of like having your own bed. Your own space."_

"_Let's wait until next year then." She said softly. She stared at the bed for a few moments before continuing. "I'm going to go drop my laundry off; maybe Ollie will do it for me before we leave."_

"_You sure that you remember how to get there?" James asked. _

"_Yeah, hang a left at Hawaii… Honestly, James, I'll be fine!" Bridget laughed and picked her cauldron back up. "I'll be back in five minutes, we've got to finish packing; the train leaves in three hours."_

* * *

Three hours… That's how long she'd been lost in the castle. _Pathetic._she thought bitterly. _Absolutely pathetic. _She couldn't even find her way around Hogwarts without help from Sirius, Remus, Peter, or James. Wait, was that the kitchens? Bridget felt like jumping for joy. "Thank God!" She tickled the pear and stumbled into the kitchens.

"Hello?" She asked tentatively. The kitchen seemed to be empty. "Heellllloooo!"

"How is I to be helping you, Miss?" A small, green, wrinkled elf appeared at her elbow.

"Oh! Um, do you think you could show me the way to Professor Dumbledore's office? You see, I got kind of lost and-"

"Please follow me, Miss." The elf turned and began walking at a brisk pace towards the door. Bridget couldn't help raising an eyebrow at the elf's strange attire. It was wearing a miniature business suit with a skirt and polished oxfords. A second, closer look revealed that it also seemed to have bright red nail polish on its fingernails.

"I love that color."

"Thank you, Miss." The elf said tersely and sped up the pace. Bridget had to jog to keep up. The elf stopped at the gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office and said, "Miss is going to have to find her own way in." Without further ado, the elf snapped her fingers and disappeared, suit and all.

Bridget rolled her eyes and turned to face the gargoyle. Now, the password…

"Okay then… um, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum! No? Um, licorice wands? Pepper Imps! Jelly Slugs! Chocolate Frogs! Cockroach Clusters!" The gargoyle stood aside. "Ew, really?" She made a face and walked quickly past it… just in case it changed its mind about letting a first year into the Headmaster's Office.

She came up the oak door and paused once, before knocking and quickly taking a step back from the threshold.

"Come in!" Professor Dumbledore's voice called cheerfully.

Bridget pushed open the heavy door and took three cautious steps into the office. Professor Dumbledore was nowhere to be seen.

"Hullo, Professor." Bridget mumbled.

"Why, Ms. McGuire, is that you?" Dumbledore's head poked out of a black cabinet that was next to a perch Bridget knew belonged to Fawkes. "Shouldn't you be on your way home? Oh, I'm sorry, how rude of me. May I offer you a butterbeer?"

"Yes please, Professor." Bridget's face burned with embarrassment. She'd been in the Headmaster's office many times before of course, but to miss the train? She was parched and hungry, and the weird little house elf hadn't offered her anything to eat. And since it was now five o'clock in the evening and she hadn't eaten since eight o'clock that morning, she was reasonably starved.

Dumbledore handed her an ice cold butterbeer and sat down behind his desk. He drew his wand and with a flick, removed the caps. He held his bottle up and said, "A toast, Ms. McGuire? To the end of another school year and the beginning of summer?"

Bridget smiled and clinked bottles with him. How oddly surreal this all felt. Dumbledore took a quick drink from his butterbeer then set the beverage down onto his desk.

"Now, I assume that you didn't stay behind at Hogwarts to have a friendly chat with your Headmaster, am I correct?" He said merrily. His eyes really did seem to twinkle perpetually, Bridget noted.

"Well, um, ha ha… It's a funny story, really, Professor. You see, I was bringing my laundry down to the house elves before I left on the train, Professor, and I sort of… kind of… got lost."

Dumbledore chuckled, before giving in and full out laughing. "Ah, I'm sorry, Ms. McGuire… Please, I truly am sorry. That's perfectly understandable. Let's be thankful that it wasn't something extremely serious. Like, shoving a certain Slytherin into the Vanishing Cabinet…" He raised an eyebrow and smiled. "You gave Mr. Malfoy quite the scare. I daresay he won't be trying anything else again."

Bridget relaxed a bit in her chair and gave a weak smile. She opened her mouth to reply only to be cut off be a sharp rap at the window. Bridget realized with a sinking feeling that it was Theodore, or Theo, Papa's owl. But didn't he know that she was supposed to be on the train right now? The owl must have obviously come to the Headmaster after finding no one in the Great Hall. _He's forgotten when I get out of school again. _She thought, her face burning. Many a day she had waited outside of her Muggle elementary school waiting for her father to pick her up, long after Lily, Claire, Marie and Alice had left. A similar incident had also occurred around the Christmas holidays.

Dumbledore saw the bird and rose halfway before saying, "Please excuse me, Miss McGuire. It seems that we have an avian visitor on our hands."

"You can call me Bridget if you'd like, Sir." She said softly. "The owl's from my father. I recognize the bird."

"Really? Then let's see what this is all about then, shall we, Bridget?" He took the letter from Theo and conjured up a dish of water for it. He handed the letter to Bridget. "You're correct. It's addressed to you."

Bridget took the envelope and ripped it open.

_Daughter,_

_I assume you are doing well. I received your last owl and I am very pleased with your academic performance in your exams. However, your behavior is unacceptable. Fiona is appalled and I am extremely disappointed in you for upsetting your stepmother like that. _

Bridget snorted at the idea of Fiona being appalled at _her_ behavior. Bridget had read the reports from her lawyers and private investigators hired by her mother to look after Bridget and her piece of the inheritance. She was constantly updated with information on Papa's new wives and all other business and legal proceedings. Bridget was even willing to bet that she was the only twelve year old at Hogwarts that knew what alimony and aliquot was and what the difference was between them.

Fiona wasn't exactly "little miss perfect" from the reports that she had read. Bridget personally thought that being a Muggle play bunny was a bigger mistake than a few pranks. She read on:

_Your behavior has distressed her so much that she has insisted that we go to our house in Canada; in the Northwest Territory instead of the one in Ontario since she plans on magically entertaining this summer and we can't risk any more Muggle sightings. We plan to be gone for most of the summer, so she has kindly compiled a list of summer activities for you while we are gone. I have also owled your grandmother in Taiwan. She has set aside a week for you to visit her this summer. Please be grateful, polite and considerate when you visit. She is a very busy woman with limited patience. I will now close this letter with Fiona's choice of summer plans for you._

_-Cooking camp in Russia_

_- Summer school in America_

_- Volunteer work for Fiona's charity organization_

_-Visiting your sisters in France_

_- Elocution and Manners Summer program in London, along with tutoring in French, Latin and embroidery at the Young Ladies for a Better Society Institution._

_- Performing Arts Camp in France_

_I look forward to your arrival at Ellesmere Range next week._

_Sincerely,_

_Gus McGuire_

_P.S. Your brother had requested that I send his congratulations on your grades and your new acquaintances with the Black, Potter, Pettigrew, and Lupin families. He sends his warmest regards and wishes me to inform you that he intends to owl you soon and set up a date to meet up one day. _

Bridget stared at the letter for a few seconds. She really couldn't believe that he had forgotten when school got out.

"Professor, may I borrow a quill and some parchment? I need to reply to this immediately. It seems," she said tartly while rolling up the letter, "that my father has again, forgotten when I get out of school."

Dumbledore nodded and conjured up parchment and handed her a quill. "Take as long as you'd like. Now, with your permission, I'll gather up the rest of your belongings and bring them here. I believe that your trunk is in the boys' dormitory?"

Bridget's jaw dropped slightly. "How did you…?"

Dumbledore chuckled. "Did you really think that Professor McGonagall doesn't notice what's going on in that tower of yours? We don't hear all the juicy gossip, but the news of a group of inseparable first year students did manage to get to us. And, unless I am sorely mistaken, there is a rule against boys in the girls' dormitories… but it says nothing of girls in the boys' dormitories. So, no harm done."

"Thank you, Professor."

"Not at all; it's no problem." He smiled, "I'll leave you to it then, shall I?"

With a small nod to Bridget, he left the room.

After a moment of consideration, Bridget moved over to the Headmaster's chair to write her letter. The desk and chair were almost too big for her and her feet barely touched the ground. She scooched the chair closer to the desk and took a phoenix quill from its holder and dipped it into the ink pot on his desk. She eyed the desk drawer apprehensively before yanking it open, snatching a piece of parchment from the stack there and slamming it shut. Bridget let out a breath of relief. She was on pins and needles; expecting an alarm to go off at any second.

She looked around the room as she thought of a reply. She loved the Headmaster's office; the beautiful antique carvings and delicate silver instruments that were scattered around the office on small tables, the gorgeous lacquered black liquor cabinet in the corner, the oak dresser, and most of all- Fawkes. The plumed epitome of beauty looked at her and cocked his head as if to ask if she was honestly going to take that kind of treatment from her own father. She studied Fawkes and smiled. Trust a bird to know _exactly_ how to reply.

_Father,_

_I'd like to warn you that the next time you wish to sound well informed of your youngest daughter's whereabouts, or anyone else's for that matter, that you actually know where they are and have the facts- not a scattered version of the truth. I happen to be on my way home as I write this. Hogwarts does not let out next week, but_ this_ week. Thankfully, I did not get onto the train on time due to unfortunate circumstances and did have to endure the humiliation of being forgotten at Platform nine and three quarters. _

_As for Fiona, it's no use to pretend any longer. I received a letter from your legal department two weeks ago, informing me of your plans to divorce her after this summer. As you may also have forgotten, I inherited my mother's stock in the company and her right to full access to all the legal records in the company: legal and private. I am a bit insulted that you let this stranger run our household and order around your _daughter_ of all people. I thought that you might have held more personal pride in your family than to let her run things. _

_This brings me to the issue of Fiona's order that I abandon Ellesmere Range for the summer. I can't believe that you actually require me to obey that woman and her foolish commands! Since I have no say in the matter however, I will do as you wish. I will obey only you. I am warning you, I will directly ignore any commands from her. Below is the list of camps you have sent, attached with my commentary._

_Cooking camp in Russia- No. You both seem to have forgotten the Russia is a COMMUNIST country. Remember the Soviet Union? _

_Summer school in America- School during the summer? Do you even _remember_ your childhood, Papa? No._

_Volunteer work for Fiona's charity organization- No. Fiona's charity doesn't do any work. What they do is get Fiona drunk enough and get her to convince you to write a rather large check. _

_Visiting your sisters in France- Papa, they aren't in France anymore… school let out two weeks ago. Nice to know I wasn't the only one this time._

_ Elocution and Manners Summer program in London, along with tutoring in French, Latin and embroidery at the Young Ladies for a Better Society Institution- No. I would kill them all as I made my escape to lock myself up in a mental hospital with all the other poor, normal souls whose parents also made them attend._

_Performing Arts Camp in France- This is probably the sanest idea Fiona's had since she married you. I will attend on one condition- Lily, Marie, Claire and Alice get to go with me. _

_Finally, Papa, I hope you will know how disappointed and disgusted I am with your behavior. No matter how much you wish that I had perhaps died during my birth, I am still your daughter and I still love you._

_Sincerely,_

_Bridget McGuire _

Without further ado, she attached the letter to the owl and watched it fly off. While she would regret the letter later, she couldn't help but feel a bit vindicated as she imagined the look on Gus McGuire's face as he read her letter.

A few minutes later, Dumbledore reentered his office and upon finding her perched precariously in his chair, chuckled, offered her his arm and led her to the Floo. After helping her heave her trunk in the fireplace he gave her a pinch of Floo powder.

"Have a nice summer, Bridget." He said merrily.

"Thank you, Professor." Stepping out of the extinguished fireplace for one second, she impulsively reached out and hugged the Headmaster. "Thank you for everything."

She jumped into the fireplace before he got the chance to respond, threw the Floo powder down and yelled, "Ellesmere Range!" The warm, green flames engulfed her and she couldn't help laughing at the ridiculousness of her life.

_Meanwhile, on the train…_

James finished scribbling on a ragged, ripped up piece of parchment, rolled it up and handed it to his owl. The owl took off through the window and the four boys watched as it slowly disappeared from sight.

"I cannot believe that she got lost again." Sirius groaned and leaned back in his seat. "I am so going to take the mickey out of her the next time I see her."

Remus absentmindedly scratched behind Bisou's ears. "That might be sooner than you think. We have to give Bisou back to her, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Hey, James, you think your parents will let us Floo to the McGuire's place?" Sirius asked.

James shrugged, and then nodded. "Yeah, they know the McGuire's Floo address. Will all your parents be okay with it?"

Peter said sadly, "I can't. I'm off to summer school right after this. My parents weren't happy with my exam results so they enrolled me in a few summer courses."

"That stinks. I'm sorry, Pete." Sirius patted Peter on the back. "You've got to be kidding me on the parents' thing, James. My mother will be thrilled that I'm finally making 'the proper connections.'"

"Great. And you, Remus?"

"I'll ask my mom and dad, they're picking me up at the station. Besides, they want to meet all of you."

"Nice! So, we'll just gate-crash the McGuire's with the puppy excuse, stay the night there or at least stay for dinner, and then we'll Floo home the next day." James rubbed his hands together and smiled.

"I'm not so sure about that, James." Remus said; a bit worried. "What if they don't have enough room for all of us?"

"Don't worry about that, mother," Sirius said, using his favorite nickname for Remus when Remus was in distress, "Bridget's a pure-blood. She's _got_ to have space. And if she doesn't, who cares? It's not as if we need a huge castle or something."

"But we don't even know where she lives," Remus persisted.

"Like I said, my mom's got that taken care of," James said happily.

"All right. If you say so." With that, Remus relaxed back into his seat. "Hope Bridget knows what's coming."

Seconds later, Bridget stepped out fireplace and out onto Ellesmere Range, the centuries old ranch settled in the Scottish mountainside. The craggy peaks of the mountainside were visible even through the foggy mist that enveloped the lower region of the ranch. She sighed, since the Floo network had landed her in the outside fireplace instead of in her father's study; Gus McGuire was obviously not home. Whenever he was away, her father insisted on shutting off the only Floo-connected fireplace in the entire castle and activating the one that let the person off at the entrance to the ranch. She looked around at the familiar surroundings.

The entrance to the ranch was fairly simple considering the wealth of her family. Two wooden posts about twenty feet high were driven into the ground. Stretched across them was another post from which hung a thin, purposely rusted iron plate. An artist had cut out pieces from the iron sheet so that the sign read "Ellesmere Range" and under that, "McGuire." Around the words, were several hollowed out dragons surrounded by mountains. For the McGuire family hadn't accumulated their wealth through the stock market alone, in fact, they were barely connected with the stock market. What the McGuire family was famous for, was their _dragons._The McGuire family boasted several centuries of successful dragon entrepreneurs and dragon tamers. They had raised, and in some cases, tamed dragons for wealthy pure-bloods, large apothecary chains, and any other reason you could think of. They had all types of dragons- Antipodean Opaleyes, Chinese Fireballs, the common Welsh Greens, Hebridean Blacks, Hungarian Horntails, Norwegian Ridgebacks, Peruvian Vipertooths, Romanian Longhorns, Swedish Short-Snouts, Ukrainian Ironbellies and some hybrid breeds which only the McGuires and their dragon keepers knew.

The ranch was ridiculously large; it ran thirty miles wide and forty miles long. The land had been accumulated over the years and the family still acquired more and more land each year. The cold, mountainous terrain was the perfect habitat for the dragons in general and for the few that mostly lived in valleys, there was a small valley nestled in the mountains. It was the ideal place to keep several dragons; charms almost as old as the land itself ensured that no dragon could get out or attack any innocent passerby on their way to the castle.

The McGuire family poured all their energy and love into Ellesmere Range, and it showed in the wild, but somewhat tamed beauty of the landscape. Whatever wasn't situated in the mountains was meticulously taken care of. No unsightly weed was allowed to take root on the road and no animal dropping was left un-vanished by the grounds' caretaker, Ainsley. If a Muggle had any reason to drive past the ranch, which was sixty miles from the nearest town, they would have thought it was a Scottish version of an American "dude ranch" for vacationers.

It was not a dude ranch of course, but her home. A place of refuge where she could chat with her friends, tease and annoy her sisters, go horseback riding, or race her brother in the mountains. It was a place where she could go on long walks with her father's dogs and-

"Oh my Godric, I've forgotten Bisou!"


	6. Chapter 6

"See you next year!" Peter waved sadly at his friends while his parents ushered him through the barrier to the Muggle world.

"Bye, Peter! Now, let's find Remus' parents first," James insisted. "Then we'll find mine; they can tell the Blacks where you went, Sirius."

"Mum! Dad!" Remus was already waving furiously at what an couple standing not far off. Mrs. Lupin had deep blue eyes and sandy blonde hair that came to her shoulders, while Mr. Lupin was a tall, thin, aging fellow who looked like an elder version of his son. His hair was also blonde, but streaked with gray. Mr. and Mrs. Lupin nearly ran over to Remus and engulfed him in a hug.

"Darling! Oh, we've missed you so much! I can't wait to meet your friends; where are they?" Mrs. Lupin was positively beaming as she looked around.

"Right here, Mrs. Lupin." James stepped up to the plate. "I'm James Potter, and this is Sirius Black." He shook Mr. Lupin's hand as well. "We're missing Bridget McGuire and Peter Pettigrew, but you'll probably meet them soon," he added.

"It's nice to meet you boys. It's nice to know that Remus has friends that he can trust." He gave the boys a piercing stare.

"We wouldn't tell anyone about Remus' furry little problem for the world, Mr. Lupin." Sirius sounded a bit offended. "What kind of friends would we be if we did that?"

"Good. I'm just checking. You can never be too careful…" Mr. Lupin trailed off and smiled at the boys.

"Mum," Remus started, obviously eager to change the subject. "James, Sirius and I were going to go Floo to Bridget's house and return her pet." He motioned to the basket Sirius was holding, "We don't know where she went; she didn't get on the train and the only thing that we remembered to grab was Bisou- that's the dog. Can I go? Please?"

"Bridget? Is that the girl you wrote to me about? The one who's been camping outside the tree once a month since they found out?" Mrs. Lupin raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, that's her." Remus said quickly, his ears tinting pink.

"Well, I suppose if you really want to go… How are you going to get back?"

"Don't worry, she's from a wizarding family and they're hooked up to the Floo network. We were just planning to Floo there, stay for dinner and maybe spend the night." Remus nearly clapped a hand over his mouth. He hadn't meant to add in that last part.

"Spend the night? Remus, I'm not sure about this." Sirius noticed her sudden, small pang of anxiety and quickly moved to placate her.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Lupin. It's strictly platonic." He crossed his fingers in hopes that he had used that stupid word correctly.

"Still…" She glanced at her husband, bitting her lip.

"Here, why don't you talk to my parents?" James asked. "They should be around here somewhere." He glanced around the emptying platform.

" 'Around here somewhere?' " A woman had snuck up behind him. "Try behind you, sweetheart." She leaned over and kissed both James and Sirius on the cheek before extending her hand to Mrs. Lupin. "Hi, I'm James' mother, Allie Potter. Nice to meet you, Mrs..." She paused uncertainly, glancing at her son.

"Lupin." Mrs. Lupin confirmed, "Melinda Lupin. This is my husband, Nate Lupin."

"Again, nice to meet you, Melinda. You must be Remus' mother." Mrs. Potter smiled warmly as her arms wrapped around Sirius and James' shoulders.

"Mum, we need to drop by Bridget's house; you know, that girl that I told you about in the letter? The one that helped push Lucius Malfoy into the Vanishing Cabinet a few weeks ago?" James said.

"Don't see why not. I've got their address in my purse somewhere." She let go of James and Sirius and rummaged in her shoulder bag. "Here, Ellesmere Range, Scotland. I'll deal with your mum, Sirius, don't worry. Would Remus like to come? They'll probably just spend the night there since Scotland's a bit more isolated then our own home. In fact, how about we get the kids there and we can all come back to my house for some dinner? I'd love to get to know you better." Mrs. Potter smiled warmly and hugged James and Sirius again.

"Mum!" James moaned, trying to push her away.

"I know! I'm sorry! I just can't tell you enough how much I missed you boys!" Mrs. Potter said unabashedly.

"_I_ love you, Mrs. Potter." Sirius said while he smirked at James.

"Git," James muttered under his breath.

"Thank you, Sirius. I love you too." She kissed the top of his head.

"Hey! What about me? You know, the son by birth?" James whined.

"Now look who wants attention!" Mrs. Potter teased, ruffling his hair. "Of course I love you, James. Now, Melinda, how about that dinner? I'm starving."

"That sounds like a fantastic idea, Allie," Mr. Lupin nodded. "We'd love to come over for dinner."

"Great! Then it's settled!" Mrs. Potter rummaged in her purse once more and pulled out a small leather pouch and gave it to James.

"Here's some Floo powder, and a few Galleons- just in case. I want you three to be extremely careful; you know where the Floo station is, Sirius. Don't talk to strangers, and watch out for those- what are they called? Oh, yes- automobiles._ Don't get run over! _Keep your wands on you, I'll take your trunks- James Potter, what are you doing with that dog? Don't hold it like that, it's a Corgi, you'll break its back. Oh Godric, what am I saying?" She laughed loudly and took a deep breath. "Sorry, I was getting all flustered there! Well, have fun you three! I want you back before noon tomorrow- understand? Now, let me give you kiss, Merlin knows I've missed you." She kissed James and Sirius on the cheek, ruffled their hair then turned to Mrs. Lupin.

"Now, I Apparated here…"

* * *

"FREEDOM!" Sirius yelled. He flung his arms out before falling down and pretending to kiss the ground. He, Remus and James were standing just outside of King's Cross Station, tying to fashion a leash out of the ball of string that Remus had found in his pocket.

"Sirius, please act as if you're not a two year old." Remus laughed, placing Bisou on the ground.

"I can't wait to see what Bridget's place looks like," James admitted, urging the rest towards the Floo station.

* * *

Bridget was absolutely petrified.

"I can't believe I forgot my own dog." She said slowly. She sat down on the stone hearth and was ready to have a full-on panic attack when-

"Hey, McGuire. Long time, no see." James, Sirius and Remus stepped out of the fireplace.

"Oh my Godric, James! You have Bisou!" She scooped up Bisou and covered the dog's head with kisses.

"What's for dinner? I'm hungry." Sirius smirked as Bridget engulfed him in a hug.

"You'll have to work for it," she leered back. "C'mon. We've got a long walk ahead of us."

Sirius' mouth fell open. "You mean we have to walk to get to your house? Isn't this Ellesmere Range?"

"Yes, it's a ranch. Meaning, our yard is a bit larger than normal. Let's go." She jerked her head towards the castle and picked up the handle of her suitcase before setting it back down. "I'm just going to take my wand and have the house elf come back for the rest of it later," she said.

An hour later they were walking through the entry way of Ellesmere Castle.

"My sisters are around here somewhere. Adele! Ninette! Chardonnay!" Bridget called.

Remus snorted uncharacteristically. "Your mum named your sister after a drink?"

"Not my mum- Wife Number Two. She was French, blonde, and crazy and so, her daughters are also French, blonde and crazy, but not as much as she was. Adele! Ninette! Chardonnay! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE!"

"BRIDGET!" A female voice squealed. They all whirled around to see a young woman click-clacking down the hall in high heels. She had blonde hair and a smooth, pale complexion. Sirius's mouth fell open.

"Wife Number Two was also part-Veela." Bridget informed then, pushing Sirius' jaw back in. "Hi, Ninette!"

"Bridget!" She swooped down on Bridget and pecked her on both cheeks. "Adele and Chardon are getting ready for the party tonight. Lucky for me that I found you though! Papa and that woman are out of town so we decided to have a little fun." She smiled wickedly and tossed he hair over her shoulder. "We invited your cousin Maria because we didn't want you to be all by yourself, but it looks like you brought your little friends with you!"

The stars in James' eyes faded as he scowled. He stuck out his hand, and spoke with an icy edge, "I'm James Potter. This is Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. And we're not little." He added.

"My mistake." She smiled and said to Bridget, "You're welcome to come to the party, but no alcohol and don't _talk_ to anyone, okay?" She turned and walked out, her heels click-clacking on the stone floors as she hurried out.

Bridget stuck her tongue out at her sister's retreating back. "Want to see my room? We can get dressed for the party."

"As fun as dressing in drag seems, I'll have to pass on that opportunity," Remus said.

"Oh, you actually thought we were going to go in normal clothes?" Bridget grinned and clapped sharply once. A house-elf appeared immediately. "Millie, can you please pick up our trunks from the main drive? I'd also appreciate it if an elf could also assist us in picking outfits for my step-sisters' party tonight."

"Certainly, miss." Millie the house-elf disappeared and another elf scurried in from out of nowhere to take its place.

"If you would please follow me, sirs and madam. I will escort you to Miss McGuire's quarters." The house elf announced as he or she bowed deeply. Sirius was impressed with the house elf's grammar.

"How'd you get it to talk like that?" he murmured in an undertone to Bridget as they followed the house elf up and through the winding hallways of Ellesmere Castle.

She elbowed him hard in the ribs before whispering back, "They have feelings too, you know." She rolled her eyes and hurried down the corridor.

Ellesmere Castle was very much like Hogwarts. There were a few towers, a main hall, a basement kitchen where the house elves lived and worked, and a lot of twisting winding passageways. As they walked, the house elf entertained them by giving them a brief description of the centuries old fortress. Scottish wizarding nobility- near the time of Wallace Wallace's rebellion- built it, but unlike the other castles at the time it was built for comfort and luxury. It was designed for the nobleman's pregnant wife, but it was shortly abandoned after the area was over run with dragons. A century later, a wandering sheepherder found it and took up residence in its great halls. The McGuire family line was founded, but they met with little prosperity and much distress. The dragons drove away the few villagers the McGuires had coaxed there, and also devoured most of their livestock.

Their luck turned with the arrival of a poor, but brilliant and handsome wizard who sought the hand of Caitrìona- the daughter of Eideard McGuire. Eideard opposed the match, but he could not see his daughter unhappy, so he set his daughter's suitor a task. The suitor, whose name was Ian, had to find a way to tame or dispose of the twenty dragons that were destroying the livestock. He set to work. Being extremely bright, he quickly invented a potion to subdue the dragons. Without alerting anyone to what he was up to, one night he snuck up to the lair of the fierce dragoness who was sleeping peacefully. Ian administered the potion without any difficulty, but the dragoness' mates arrived and attacked and killed Ian.

Caitrìona mourned the death of Ian, but wanted revenge against the dragons who killed her lover. She wanted to take away their freedom and make them obedient, the way she would be made obedient when she would grow up an old maid. From Ian's notes, she was able to brew huge batches of the potion that kept the dragons subdued and even improved the potion so that it was able to affect multiple dragons instead of just one. All she had to do was light the potion on fire and a thick, heavy smoke would envelope the dragons and make them obedient. A dragon tamer could only control one dragon at a time, but the smoke would immobilize the others while he would slip a golden bridle around the dragon of his choice or administered medicine. Caitrìona died later that year from grief, but the McGuires and their dragon tamers still used the same methods to tame the dragons on Ellesmere Range.

With their newfound wealth, the McGuires were able to make the castle and grounds luxurious. They made away with the drafty, cold halls and modernized the castle. They built stables for huge winged horses, they hired more dragon tamers to help them keep the now over-flowing dragon population in check and built more cottages on the grounds. The castle was the epitome of a more masculine type of architectural beauty, as James, Sirius and Remus saw on their way up to Bridget's room. They finally reached Bridget's room that was in one of the towers near the lake. The house elf pushed open the two heavy oak doors and what they saw made their jaws drop in disbelief.

"Welcome to casa McGuire," Bridget joked. It was a small, hexagonally shaped room with tan walls and sandstone fireplace. The dark hard wood floor matched the open-air staircase that twisted almost once around the room before disappearing into a higher level. There were comfortable looking armchairs and a matching couch settled around the fireplace, and there was a large window on every wall except for the one that the fireplace took up. Plants of all kinds were scattered around the room artfully as if the room was more of a showcase than an actual room. There were even a stack of books and magazines on the coffee table next to the sofa and an elf tray were the elves could send up snacks to the room.

"Nice place," Sirius commented. It all looked unreal, unlived in.

"Thanks; it's not normally this clean. Just so that you know," she told them. "Let's go upstairs."

They walked up the stairs, gawking at the view of the lake and mountains as they went. The staircase was open to the room and ran along the walls, giving them an overhead view of the sitting room. But if they had thought that the sitting room was impressive, her actual bedroom was much more.

The room was the exact shape and size as the one below it, but this time with light pink colored walls, and the windows had sheer, white drapes. A large, queen-sized four-poster bed resided in the middle of the room with white, sheer drapes enveloping it like a canopy. The coverlet was white with pale pink roses and the sheets peeking out from underneath were of a creamy satin. The bed was the most imposing thing in the entire room, with its simple briar vine carvings and dark wood. On either side of it were two matching bed side tables equipped with a Victorian lampshade and alarm clock.

"The bed's been here ever since the castle was built. They put lots of preservation charms and stuff on it 'cause it was for the pregnant noblewoman all those years ago." Bridget explained. The furniture around it was undoubtedly newer, but still old. It looked as if the carver who had made the other pieces had tried to match the design of briar leaves that ran up the posts of the bed, but the design had gone far beyond his own skill. There was a desk in the room along with an old, Asian looking trunk. Asian art also graced the walls; cherry blossom prints and dragons were placed around the room. The room had also had that unlived in quality as the room downstairs had. That the child who had grown up in the room hadn't played dolls there or ever sought solitude there. But one look out the window and the casual observer would see the child's real room- all of Ellesmere Range.

"The bathroom and the closet is upstairs," Bridget explained. "There wasn't any plumbing back when the castle was built so they added an extra room in the attic roof. So, now that I've shown you the place, let's go find some costumes!" Bridget clapped and rubbed her hands together. "This is going to be fun."

* * *

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	7. Chapter 7

A few hours later and the quartet was running around Ellesmere Castle screaming their lungs out and acting like complete and utter idiots in general.

Sirius skidded to a stop in front a glass paned door that seemed to quiver and shake of its own accord.

"Bridget! I've found where the party's at!" he yelled. Without waiting for them to catch up, he yanked the door open and slipped inside. People were dancing to the pounding rock music that blared from the stereo while others lounged around the various sofas in the room sipping Firewhiskey and flirting.

Sirius quickly located the three blonde sisters sitting together on a couch, clearly enjoying being the center of attention. He put a hand to his face to ensure that the mask was still there, before pushing through the throng and making a deep bow. When he rose, it was with a slight shock that he saw that one of the sisters wasn't on the couch like he had originally thought, but in a plush, velvet wheelchair.

"Mademoiselles!" he exclaimed. They giggled and each of them held out a hand for him to kiss, which he did with many flourishes and dramatics. Ninette did the introductions.

"Chardonnay, Adele, this is the _charmant _ Sirius Black. He is one of Bridget's friends from Hogwarts. Siri, this is my younger sister Chardonnay," she motioned to her sister sitting next to her on the couch, "and this is my older sister, Adele." She gave the girl in the wheelchair a half-hug.

"Hi! Nice to meet you!" Chardonnay gushed. Adele merely smirked at him. She had that unmistakable air about her that Sirius had always associated with Slytherins. But she was… different. Nicer. Her mouth slowly curved into a warm smile as she watched him watch her, which he did boldly, refusing to drop his eyes from hers.

"You are incorrigible." Adele told him, pursing her lips in mock frustration.

"Of course… but so are you!" he told her, acting braver than he felt.

"Really?" She was genuinely interested. An eighteen-year-old woman was interested! In him! Nothing was going to come of it, of course. He was most likely going to get a peck on a cheek along with a "clever boy!" But the game enthralled him- the flirtation, the risk, the chance. Human beings were fascinating creatures, but females were the most fascinating of all.

"Well, Mademoiselle, I've spent only thirty seconds with you and you've proved to be an absolutely incorrigible flirt," he answered back, a teasing smile on his lips. He loved the attention. And she did not disappoint. She beckoned him closer and bestowed a chaste kiss on his cheek and an indulgent smile. At the age of eleven, Sirius Black knew that women would love him.

* * *

The party raged on well into the night and the partygoers became more and more inebriated and admittedly sloppier and wilder. Sirius could hear crashes resonate over the pounding music but he ignored them as he, James, Bridget, and even Remus danced like crazy on the dance floor. They had all found costumes and masks, but they had long discarded all the unnecessary parts of their costumes so they were wearing more or less regular clothes, albeit with an odd twist to them.

Suddenly, there was a loud "BOOM!"

The stereo skipped once or twice before feebly dying out. The party fell totally silent, looking for the source of the disruption. Chardon and Ninette rose to their feet and tiptoed towards the French glass doors only to have them thrown open as they approached.

A handsome man of medium height and wiry build strode through the doors while a simpering blonde lady followed behind him wearing a look of wide-eyed horror.

Bridget's face paled. "Oh Godric, oh Godric, oh Godric," she whispered nervously under her breath. "That' s my dad and Fiona Umbridge Black. Quick, let's get out of here before she sees--"

"Bridget!" A high, scratchy voice shrieked. Fiona crooked her finger at Bridget in a way that Bridget thought was highly reminiscent of the Wicked Witch of the West from that Muggle movie, _The Wizard of Oz. _ After she had seen the movie at Fiona's house before the wedding, Bridget had always privately entertained the idea of tossing a bucket of water on Fiona to see whether or not she would melt. And as she turned slowly around to face the wicked witch, she wished that she had only done it sooner.

"Yes, Fiona?" she asked dully.

"Did you have any part in planning this?" Fiona inquired in what she might have thought sounded like a caring, concerned voice.

Bridget quickly glanced at her three stepsisters who were currently being bawled out by her father as the party guests started filing out the room. Surprisingly enough, the partiers still seemed happy, and Bridget saw one or two of them pat Adele on the back in congratulations. Bridget thought fast as she racked up her options. She could: A) Say no and take the punishment for going to the party. B) Say yes and pray that she could still work the "daddy's little girl" card or C) Do something bad and run like hell (and face even direr punishment later of course). Bridget decided to go for option "C."

Bridget raised her wand and shouted "Aguamenti!" Water gushed from the tip of her wand and pelted Fiona in the face and chest, temporarily blinding her and causing her to stagger back a few steps. "Take that, you witch!"

"Run for it!" Sirius screeched happily while Remus, who seemed to have also watched i _The Wizard of Oz /i _ started singing:

_ "Ding-dong the witch is dead_

_Which old witch? The wicked witch_

_Ding-dong the wicked witch is dead!" _

James couldn't keep from laughing as they sprinted up the hallways. After a few minutes they had given up running and Bridget and Remus were attempting to teach James and Sirius the rest of the words.

James, especially, found great fun in yelling the words, "Ding-dong the wicked witch is dead!" He jumped on the settee and rolled around laughing.

"Oh god, you are so dead tomorrow," Sirius said, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.

Bridget shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I've been wanting to do that ever since she made me watch that stupid movie at her house before the wedding. Good thing Remus taught me that one. Thanks, Remus."

"No problem," Remus responded as he tried to stifle a yawn.

"God, what time is it?" he asked. "It must be at least four in the morning. What was your father doing here so early? Adele mentioned that he wasn't supposed to be back until next week…"

As the realization hit her, Bridget paled and sat down on the sofa next to James. Her hand flew to her mouth as she mumbled, "Oh Godric, the letter…"

"I sent a letter to my father from Dumbledore's office this afternoon after I had missed the train. I reminded him that Hogwarts got out today, I mean _yesterday_, and he must have come back so that I wouldn't be alone, because obviously, he wouldn't have hired Eleanor–my babysitter, she's looked over me since I was two–until next week when he thought I would be back! So he obviously must have Flooed back over after he received my letter. But he was in Canada…" She frowned. "That doesn't make any sense. Over-seas messages take at least two to three days to get there."

"All owl post that is destined for over-seas now goes straight to the new international post office that the Ministry just opened. From there, the letters are sorted by destination, and then put through the new package Floo system. All it takes is about four hours." James explained, a bit sleepily. "My dad told me about it in his last letter. He was away in India on Wizengamot business."

"Oh crap." She slumped lower down into the sofa. "So it is my fault then. I feel awful." Bridget reached across James and opened the end table drawer to pull out some parchment and a quill. She quickly scribbled a note on it before carefully sealing it in an envelope and addressing it to Chardonnay, Ninette, and Adele and placing it on the elf table. Bridget watched as the letter disappeared with a small flash of light. She sat back down on the settee heavily.

"Well, now that they know, hopefully they won't be too mad." She said wistfully.

There was no answer. She looked around the room, only to find that Remus, James and Sirius had all passed out on the sofa while she had been writing to her stepsisters. Bridget couldn't help smiling at them, even though Sirius was drooling on her favorite chair. She went upstairs and pulled the comforter and a few blankets off her bed. She quickly covered them up, since she was beginning to fall asleep too, and curled up on the sofa right next to James. She breathed in deeply and slowly.

_'Strange,' _ she thought as she drifted off to sleep. _'He smells almost exactly like a _Quidditch match…'

* * *

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	8. Chapter 8

The four Marauders woke up surprisingly early the next day around nine o'clock. Bridget sent downstairs for some tea, coffee and four full traditional English breakfasts. While they sat on around the fire sipping their hot drinks and chatting amiably, a letter suddenly popped up out of the elf tray and flew over to Bridget. She caught it and quickly ripped it open, before letting out a shaky sigh of relief. She tossed the letter on the fire and said, "Well, at least they don't blame me for it." She said, with a sort of guilty smile on her face. "Adele told me that it wasn't my fault that I didn't know that they were throwing a party. So, I guess I'm off the hook from them. I'm not entirely sure about the Wicked Witch of Ellesmere." Sirius sniggered into his tea.

"The look on her face… priceless, I tell you," he said dreamily. "Reminds of that one time when James and Lily rowed it out at breakfast. What were you guys fighting about again? I remember it had something to do with Snivelly…"

"She has a thing for the git and she started going on about 'maturity' or something." James tried to appear casual as he said this, but Sirius saw him shift uncomfortably in his chair and turn the slightest bit of red around his ears.

"More like _you _ have a thing for her, eh?" Sirius smirked.

"Evans?" James pretended to scoff. "That know-it-all? Come off it, mate."

"Sounds like Jamie's in loooove!" Sirius teased him.

Bridget leaned in excitedly, sensing something big. "Come on, James, you _know _you want to tell us…" She raised her eyebrow and grinned wickedly.

"All right, so she _is _cute." James admitted gruffly. "But she's not Marauder material. She's not like you, Bridget, you know? Lily's… different."

"Who's to say that she's little miss perfect?" Bridget asked. "I've known her since before she was born! Lily's pulled pranks that you could have only dreamed about. Have I ever told you about Fiona's wedding?"

James, Remus and Sirius shook their heads.

"Well, I was allowed to invite Lily, Alice, Marie, and Claire over for the wedding–"

"Wait," Sirius interrupted. "Isn't Lily a Muggle-born? How did you even know her before Hogwarts? And you couldn't invite her to a magical wedding–she wouldn't know about Hogwarts and magic yet!"

"We–me, Marie, Lily, Claire, and Alice–all know each other because down in the village about thirty miles or so from here, there used to be this yoga class. It's a Muggle thing; you do all these weird poses and such. Pregnant Muggle women like it a lot. Well anyways, my mother and Claire, Marie and Alice's mothers all decided to take this class because they were all pregnant at the same time, and they were all pretty good friends. So they met Lily's mother through that yoga class and they became great friends, and once we were born we had play groups five days a week at each other's houses and stuff like that, and all the moms would have a glass of wine when they picked us up. Lily's mom, Karen, found out about the whole witchcraft thing about three years after Lily was born and all five of us started levitating things and such. Karen didn't tell Lily right away though since she wasn't really sure that Lily was going to go to Hogwarts, but when Lily was eight or nine she met Snape–"

"Wait," this time, it was James who interrupted. "Lily met _Snape_Are they friends or something?"

"If you don't shut up, I'm never going to get to tell my story!" Bridget warned. "Yes, Lily and Snape are friends–he told her about the whole magic thing one day at the playground and when she asked her mom, Karen confirmed it. Lily started hanging out with Snape a bit more since she was obviously mad at us for not telling her, but we got it all straightened out in the end." Bridget took a deep breath and was about to tell them about the wedding when the door slammed open and in stormed Mr. McGuire.

"Good morning, Papa!" Bridget chirped happily and skipped over to give her father a hug. "I've missed you so much! How–"

"Enough," ordered Mr. McGuire sternly. "Fiona told me about what you did last night at the party."

Bridget suddenly got this nasty look in her eye, and Sirius saw that the happy, "daddy's little girl" had all been an act. He caught James' and Remus' eyes and they quietly snuck upstairs to Bridget's bedroom.

"So what?" she spat venomously. "I hate that witch. She's nothing but nasty to me and if I had the chance I would throw more than water at her, thank-you-very-much!" Her eyes blazed with a hatred that none of the boys had ever seen before. Obviously, the subject of Gus McGuire's recent wife was a sore spot with Bridget.

'You, young lady, will respect her and me. You will listen--"

"Listen to her what? Even _you _don't like having to listen to her snivel and i _you /i _ married her!" Bridget snapped. "I do not like her and what I do not like, I try to _avoid. _I don't like Fiona and she doesn't like me. I refuse to answer to her or be around her. I will ignore her until you divorce her. And when that happens, I will very happily say good bye." Bridget crossed her arms across her chest and stared her father straight in the eye.

"You may avoid Fiona all that you want, but you _will _treat her with a modicum of courtesy. You will apologize to her - by note, face to face, buy her flowers for all I care! But you will apologize to her. You will then spend the rest of your summer restricted to this ranch. NO circus camp. The amount of visitors to your room will be restricted," At this point Bridget's mouth fell open in protest. "And your allowance is revoked until further notice. Consider yourself _grounded,_" Mr. McGuire said firmly, yet noticing the shocked and angry look on his daughter's face relented a bit. "Now, do you want to introduce me to your friends now that they've seen what a monster that I've been?"

Bridget raised her head in defiance. "You know that I'm going to have Elsie poison her stew tonight, don't you?"

He chuckled. "We're eating out."

Bridget scowled. "Fine. James! Sirius! Remus! Get your butts down here!"

The three boys clattered down the stairs and nearly tripped over each other trying to get down as quickly as possible.

"Papa, this is James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin. They're my friends from Hogwarts." She pointed to each of the boys in turn and fell silent as the boys stepped up to shake Mr. McGuire's hand.

"Very nice to meet you all," Mr. McGuire told them. An awkward silence ensued. Mr. McGuire cleared his throat, and with a sly look at Bridget said, "You know, Merlin and Arielle haven't had a chance to stretch their wings for quite some time now." He rummaged through his pocket before pulling out a key and tossing it to Bridget.

"Do me a favor and take them for a spin." He winked at Bridget and jerked his head towards the door. "Go have some fun."

"Thank you, Papa!" Bridget gave him a quick hug and raced out the door with James, Sirius, and Remus on her heels.

* * *

Ten minutes later, the Marauders were standing in front of a stable that was roughly the size of a house. Bridget fit the key into the lock and with a whirr and a click, the door swung open. Sirius' jaw dropped in awe.

Inside the stable were biggest horses he had ever seen. And they had _wings. _

"They're Abraxans," Bridget said as way of explanation. "We have about six of them total in the stables here, but Papa keeps a few of them at his wizard polo club. This one is Merlin," she stepped up onto a four-foot stool to pet the muzzle of a storm grey male. "Papa gave him to me for my ninth birthday when he was just a colt, so he's only three years old. But I raised him since he was a colt and taught him how to fly and all that." She got down from the stool and moved to the stall next to Merlin. "This golden one is Arielle, Chardon's Abraxan. And the black one next to Arielle is Greta, and that's Ninette and Adele's Abraxan. Ninette is afraid of heights and well, Adele can't walk so they share when we go riding. And Jasper is my brother's," she said proudly, petting a horse that seemed to be at least two feet taller than all the others.

"That's awesome," James said fervently. He approached Merlin cautiously and after a moment's hesitation started to pet him.

Sirius remarked, "I didn't know that you had a brother."

"He's off at graduate school right now. He doesn't come home very often now that he's of age though," Bridget told him.

"Is he your half brother?" Remus asked as he expertly held out a handful of oats for Arielle to nibble on.

"No, he's just my brother. He is seven years older than me though." She watched as Remus fed Arielle some more oats. "You're really good at that, you know?" she told him.

"Thanks. My dad works for the Department of Magical Creatures at the Ministry as an animal doctor and he has to bring a lot of his work home. Abraxans get sick quite easily."

"Do you guys want to go for a ride?" Bridget asked. "They're pretty easy to ride; all you have to steer."

"Yeah!" Sirius exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Great! Help me get these saddles off the wall, then." Bridget walked over the back of the stable and climbed the ladder against the wall to grab a saddle off the rack. She heaved it down to Sirius and James' waiting hands and Remus took it away and set it in front of Merlin's stall. They got the saddles and tack out for the rest of the horses and saddled them up. They were just getting ready to saddle up Jasper when the stable door opened, and a young man who looked almost exactly like Bridget strode in.

"Adam!" she squealed and tackle-hugged her older brother. "Adam! I thought that you said that you wouldn't be back until August!" She kept her arms around him, but tilted her head up so that she could look at him and giggled. "You look all grown up."

"Hey, Bee," he said fondly and tousled her hair. "I know, but when I heard that you had just recently vanquished the "wicked witch" I had to come congratulate you on your victory."

Bridget giggled again and asked, "Who told you about the "wicked witch" part?"

"Dad. Don't tell him I told you this, but he thought it was rather clever."

"I thought he did. He still does have a sense of humor deep down inside him. Deep, deep, deep down, unfortunately. But once Fiona's gone, things will be different."

"Funnier you mean?" Adam joked.

"Exactly! Things _have_ gotten funnier of late if you can believe it. These three have been a bad influence on casa McGuire." She let go of Adam to bound over to where James, Sirius, and Remus were standing.

"Adam, this is James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin. They're my new friends from Hogwarts."

"Nice to meet you," Adam said, grinning. "I'm Bridget's brother, Adam McGuire. I see that you were about to go for a ride." He looked accusingly at Bridget.

"You weren't here," she defended herself weakly. "I just thought that Jasper could use some exercise."

"No problem, Bee. Here, let me help you with that," he walked over to them and helped them saddle up Jasper. "Would you mind if I joined?"

"Not at all," Sirius said. "I just knew that Bridget had to have a brother! No girl I know acts like she does." He mock bowed to Adam. "You taught her well."

"Damned right he did." Bridget grinned. "I'll go get Tracie's tack for Sirius."

* * *

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	9. Chapter 9

Sirius dismounted Tracie and stumbled as his feet hit the ground. Adrenaline was rushing through his body and he felt a bit disoriented as he came back to earth. The ride had been awesome. Better than awesome. It was the most fantastic thing he had ever ridden. Broomsticks were all right, but nothing could compare to the power of the horse. He led the surprisingly tame Abraxan into the stable and took off the bridle and saddle and led the horse back into its stall by its harness. He had been back to the McGuire ranch five times to ride Tracie since his first visit, and he still couldn't get enough of the adrenaline rush.

"That was a wicked ride," he heard Bridget say as she began to rub down Merlin. "Perfect weather conditions. And you are getting way better at handling Tracie."

"It was wicked, wasn't it?" After the "Wicked Witch of Ellesmere" episode, 'wicked' had quickly become their new favourite word. Sirius scooped grain into Tracie's feeder, making sure to add the special plant that made the Abraxans more obedient than others of the same breed.

After learning of Sirius' love for riding, Adam had invited Sirius back to the ranch multiple times to go on "trail" rides with him and Bridget. The three wandered all around Ellesmere Range, being careful to avoid dragons whenever possible. But on some days, Adam would take Bridget and Sirius with him to go check on the dragon eggs or some other fairly danger free task. He would teach them about the different breeds of dragons on the ranch and tell them the best way to cure a wound or scale rot.

Mr. McGuire had noticed Sirius' frequent visits to the ranch also, and he and Sirius had formed an odd sort of acquaintance. Therefore, it hadn't been much of a shock when one day, Bridget's father told her that the Blacks were coming over for dinner.

Bridget fainted anyway.

* * *

Sirius tugged once more at his tight, uncomfortable collar before Walburga smacked him on the back of the head. He spared her a scowl before concentrating on the task ahead of him: getting through this dinner without getting killed, or worse, coming out of it alive with Bridget absolutely hating him. Either way, the future looked grim.

The family had side-along Apparated to the huge front doors and Orion had just grasped the dragon-shaped knocker and knocked three times. Mr. McGuire opened the door and greeted them warmly.

"Please, do come in," he invited. A house-elf appeared to take their coats and shut the door firmly behind them. "Fiona and the family are in the sitting room, right this way." They followed Gus to a rather large sitting room located to the right of the main entrance and as they entered, the entire McGuire family stood to greet them.

"Orion, Walburga, I would like you to meet my eldest son, Adam." Adam stood shook Mr. Black's hand firmly and kissed Walburga's hand lightly before sitting back down.

"And this is my daughter, Bridget." Mr. McGuire ushered Bridget towards them.

"Nice to meet you, sir," Bridget said through gritted teeth. She bowed her head as she said, "And you, ma'am."

"Charming child," Walburga remarked to Fiona, who gave a curt nod.

Walburga turned back to Bridget. "You are verylovely young lady," she told her.

"Thank you," Bridget said crisply and sat back down.

"I would also like to introduce my three stepdaughters: Adele, Ninette and Chardonnay."

All three dipped a quick curtsey and sat back down.

"And finally, my wife, Fiona." Fiona stepped forward and held her hand out for Orion to kiss and bumped cheekbones with Walburga.

"I love your robes," she gushed as she sat down. "Wherever did you find them?"

While they started chatting amicably, Gus got up and started making drinks for Adam and Orion. Bridget, Sirius, Regulus, Adele, Ninette, and Chardonnay were left sitting there in uncomfortable silence on the sofa. After a while, Adele sighed and finally rose to go to the bar to join in on the business chatter.

"How long do we have to sit here?" Sirius muttered under his breath to Bridget.

"Until dinner is served," Bridget whispered back. Sirius could smell sickly perfume on her knee-length white lace dress as he leaned toward her to hear.

"So how long have you and Bridget been friends, Sirius?" Walburga smiled, her teeth were pointy and slightly yellowed and gave Sirius the shivers.

"Since the first day of school," he said dully.

"Really?" Walburga looked more interested than Sirius cared for her to be.

"Yes," Sirius replied, firmly.

"Oh." That was all she said. She took another sip of her martini and turned her conversation with Fiona back towards the latest fashions. Occasionally, Sirius would catch her watching him and Bridget like she was appraising an outfit or a new antique. Her lips would purse and her eyes would narrow almost suspiciously.

When Elsie the house-elf came in to announce that dinner was served, Sirius nearly died with relief. His stomach was growling uncomfortably and he was growing nervous under his mother's watchful eye. Except as he walked towards the dining hall with Bridget, he happened to catch Walburga and Fiona whispering together also, and both of them were carefully watching the two of them. The two mothers plotting something could mean nothing good. He swallowed nervously before entering the dining hall. The house-elf invited them to find a seat, and he automatically sat down at the table next to Bridget.

"Sirius, your name card is over here, next to mine," Adele informed him. All of a sudden, it seemed that every adult eye at the table was on him. Even Adam and Chardonnay were staring at him.

"Oh, sorry. I'll just–" He made to get up, but Fiona pushed him back down.

"No, you can sit by Bridget. I'll go sit next to Adele." Sirius watched as Adam leaned sideways to whisper to Orion, who nodded with a satisfied grin on his face.

Dinner was a tortuous affair. The food was phenomenal, but he couldn't say a word to Bridget without the fact that he had spoken to her being acknowledged by the entire table. It was enough to make the normally rambunctious Sirius want to crawl into a hole and stay there.

Thankfully, the time could only drag on for so long and after the dessert plates had cleared, Adam, Mr. McGuire and Mr. Black adjourned to the study to presumably smoke cigars and drink brandy or whatever they did in there while Mrs. Black and Fiona went down to the wine cellar/tasting room to have some after dinner "tea." The three stepsisters took pity on Regulus and invited him to join them in the family room to play wizard chess, so Bridget and Sirius were free to roam around the castle as they wished. Once out of sight of his parents, Sirius yanked off his dinner jacket, bowtie and left them hanging on a bust in the third floor corridor. After unbuttoning his collar he stretched out his arms and yawned, "That's much better."

Bridget laughed as she sat down on the floor and unbuckled her too-small white patent leather shoes that Fiona had called "Mary-sues" or something weird like that. She tossed the shoes over her shoulder and they headed down the hallway lazily, not really caring where they were going. They turned the corner and started down another hallway, when a sickly sweet smell slowed them down. Bridget took three deep sniffs, but she still couldn't identify the scent.

"I'm tired, Sirius," Bridget muttered as she swayed dizzily.

"You too?" Sirius asked as he leaned against the wall to steady himself.

"Yeah…" Bridget murmured. Sirius could barely hear her now. He watched, seemingly unattached, as Bridget slid to the floor.

_ 'Don't fall asleep,' _ the voice in his head told him. He focused on Bridget's dress. It was pretty. It was white lace over a sheer fabric. It hung down to her knees… There was a small, plain black bow in the front. Sirius blinked a few times, the dress went in and out of his vision… then he passed out.

_ Meanwhile… _

"I have a proposition for you, Gus," Orion Black began. He took a small sip of Firewhisky from the glass in front of him before continuing.

"It looks like your little girl and my boy seem to have formed an attachment to each other."

'True. Bridget is very fond of Sirius. We all are," Gus McGuire conceded.

"Let's play that to our advantage." Orion leaned forward in his chair and braced his elbows on his knees.

"_Our _advantage?" Adam queried, slightly amused.

"Yes, _our _advantage." Orion confirmed. "The Black family has long allied itself with the best and the most powerful pure-blooded families for centuries. You already have your heir," he motioned to Adam. "But have you thought about your daughter's future at all? Bridget's inheritance will be naught but pennies when you pass your estate on to Adam. And I am sure, that Adam would continue looking out for Bridget an providing for her, but wouldn't you prefer a more stable future for your daughter?"

"I'm listening." Gus put down his drink and gave the man in the armchair opposite of him his full attention.

"My son, my Sirius, can give her that future." Orion leaned back in his chair and smiled. "Think about it. As the heir to the entire Black fortune, Sirius has the means to provide for Bridget and their children without either of them ever having to lift a finger." He slapped the side table with the flat of his hand. "I say, why not form a betrothal between Sirius and Bridget?"

Adam looked disgusted.

"She's eleven for god's sake! Is this really the modern way of settling things, gentlemen?"

Gus however, was slowly nodding his head in agreement with Orion. "You are right: I have not thought of Bridget's future all that often. She will inherit a small fortune from her mother's side of the family when she comes of age and when I die she is entrusted with a measly allowance of five hundred Galleons a year, but that's it. That's not nearly enough to allow her to live her life the way she has become accustomed to. Not to mention the benefits that come from an alliance with the most noble house of Black." He inclined his head towards Orion. "Besides, when I married your mother, I barely knew her at all. It was an arranged over-seas marriage and we had scarcely a hope in hell of ever finding happiness with each other, yet your mother was and is the only woman I have ever loved. Sirius and Bridget will surely grow to love each other. What is friendship, if not love?"

"The child has virtually nothing to lose. She and Sirius have already formed a lasting friendship as we all can see. The two are nearly as inseparable as James and Sirius are! When Sirius comes of age, he will surely appreciate this, and Bridget will too. Without doubt they will prefer being married to each other, than some stranger who they've barely met!" Orion exclaimed.

"Then let's write up a contract then, eh!?" Mr. McGuire roared happily.

Adam was still in shock. "What if she falls in love with someone else?"

Orion shrugged. "I highly doubt it; Sirius is a rather handsome boy."

"Attraction has nothing to do with it. I ask you: what if she falls in love with someone else?" Adam demanded.

"Then let her have a lover! It does not really matter! Do you think that I have remained faithful to _that_ creature that I married for all these years? I should say not! But she has born my children without complaint and as long as she is secretive about her lovers, I have no reason to worry or complain." Orion scoffed.

Adam lowered his head in defeat. "Fine. Father, I will not try to dissuade you from signing away her freedom, but let me name her as my heir."

Gus' eyebrows rose. "Are you serious about this, Adam?"

"Yes, I am. You may not believe me when I say that I will look after my little sister when you're gone, but I love Bridget and if something goes wrong with this marriage I want her to provided for." Adam said firmly.

"What do you mean, 'something goes wrong?'" Orion asked warily.

"Well, what if, I don't know – Sirius dies. Or he runs away to protest the marriage. Or what if you disown him? Will they still be forced together even when you claim that Sirius is no longer part of the Black family? These are things to think about."

Orion leaned back in his chair and stroked his goatee with his fingers. "I see your point. Bridget is fortunate to have such a dedicated and loving brother like you. How about this? I will legally bind Sirius to the Black family _fortune_ via this marriage contract. If he runs away or if he is disowned, he is still the heir to the entire Black fortune. If he dies, Bridget takes his place as the main benefactor. Does that sound fair to you?"

"You have a deal, Orion." Both men stood up to shake hands.

"Marvellous. I'll have my lawyer send the papers over tomorrow morning for you to look them over. After that, how about we meet for lunch and we'll smooth things over with the lawyers?"

"I look forward to it."

* * *

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	10. Chapter 10

"C'mon, Remus! Hurry up! You go any slower and we'll miss the feast!" Bridget tapped her foot impatiently while she waited for Remus to finish helping Jasmine Knightly, a pretty third year Ravenclaw who was more than capable of getting her own trunk off the rack.

Jasmine batted her eyelashes. "However can I thank you, Remus?" she cooed.

"You could try acting like you've got a brain," Bridget retorted. "Let's _go_ Remus!" She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him up the hill to the carriages.

"What's so important about this feast that we have to get there early? Everyone else is ages behind us." Remus wrenched himself out of her grip easily. He was at least a full five inches taller than her paltry height of four feet, eleven inches.

"I've got a brand new pack of Zonko's throwing knives and I want to try them out during the feast." She grabbed his wrist again and tried to tug him back up the hill.

"Are you insane?" He folded his arms across his chest and gave her 'the look.' Sirius was the one who was mainly responsible for 'the look.' When Remus gave someone 'the look', they knew that they were in trouble. He would raise one eyebrow inquisitively while the other eye would glare daggers at the troublemaker.

"Yes."

"Good." He uncrossed his arms. "Because if you were sane, I would worry about your mental health. Since you are i all /i already obviously insane—James, Peter and Sirius included—my work is done."

She rolled her eyes and held out her arms zombie-like. "Join us… join us… join us!"

"Join the league of mischief managers?" His eyes twinkled. "I already have."

* * *

Sirius gripped one of Bridget's throwing knives tightly in his hand. He was rather indignant at the fact that he had not been able to use a single one the i entire /i feast, which was practically a dinner wasted. The plates all magically cleared and Dumbledore stood to make his beginning of term speech.

"Now that we are all adequately—or should I say _more than _ adequately - fed and watered, I have a few start of term announcements. First off, Mr. Pringle would like me to remind you that the list attached to his door is, as he puts it, 'centuries old, centuries long, but with plenty room for much, much more.' Any items on said list are banned. A rather recent and unfortunate addition to this list is 'anything that has been touched, charmed, Transfigured, or breathed on by Sirius Black, James Potter and Bridget McGuire.'"

Laughter rang through out the room. Sirius and James got up and bowed, much to the disgust of Pringle, whose hand was flexing open and closed on the handle of his whip that he kept attached to his belt.

Dumbledore waited for the noise to die down before continuing. "Secondly, I would like to introduce a new member to our staff. Due to the recent deaths and disturbances taking place in the community, I have deemed it fit to hire a psychologist to help you with any emotional problems you may have. Please give a warm welcome to Doctor Kookalon!"

Sniggers and polite applause broke out amongst the students. An Indian man with kindly features and white robes rose and gave a modest bow before sitting back down.

"Kookalon? Oh, God… We are going to have SO much fun with this guy," James murmured in Sirius' ear.

"He'll never know what hit him," Sirius agreed.

"All students will meet with Doctor Kookalon for one mandatory evaluation. Further meetings are determined by him, or by request. Moving on…"

* * *

Bridget crawled into a cold, hard, unfamiliar bed. The house-elves had not anticipated an extra occupant that night in the boys' dormitories.

"Night, guys," she called out softly, trying to get comfortable.

"Night, midget." Sirius snorted.

She smiled in spite of herself. "Hey, just because you've had this miraculous growth spurt from the last time I saw you, _two weeks ago_-- "

"Give it up, shortie. You were doomed from the moment you set foot in our humble abode." He turned over to face her. "I still don't understand why you prefer sleeping in a dead guy's bed—"

"Sirius!" admonished Remus.

"He's dead, Remus. Anyways, I don't see the benefits of sleeping in here," Sirius concluded.

"You've obviously never spent a night with Lily Evans then."

"No, but I'm sure James wouldn't mind!" He smiled slyly as James clobbered him with a pillow.

"Sirius!" Remus pleaded. "Full moon is in a week."

"Sorry, Remus." He lowered his voice. "So, tell me. Does she snore?"

"Nope."

"Talk in her sleep?"

"Yes, but that doesn't bug me."

"Umm… no, wait! Don't tell me… She wets her bed!"

"No!" Bridget giggled. "Just for that, I'm not telling you!"

"Oh, come on, Bee! This is Lily Evans we're talking about! She may be your friend, but this is the girl who turned you in when you set a llama loose in Professor Redlines' office. She has _no_ sense of humour. She didn't even laugh when James charmed her quill to write love notes to Flitwick! If someone had done that for me, I would've proposed marriage on the spot!"

"Nope! Not telling you!" She turned over and smothered her giggles with her pillow.

"Sirius…" Remus' voice was growing fainter and fainter.

"Fine…" Sirius snuck over to Bridget's bed. "Scoot over."

She wiggled over to make room for him as he lifted the covers and tucked himself in. She flipped back over to face him. Their faces were inches apart.

Bridget made a face. "You didn't brush your teeth, did you?"

Sirius huffed in her face and grinned wolfishly. "All the better to interrogate you, my dear."

"I think that you'll find me a very tough witness. I've survived countless tellings off lately from my brother and father."

Sirius smirked and began to snuggle in closer so that she had no way to escape. "I think that you'll find that you've met your match." He began to tickle her softly. She bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud and waking Remus but her efforts were to no avail. Sirius began to tickle her in earnest and she buried her head in her pillow to muffle the screams.

"Fine! I surrender!" she wheezed. "She's an early morning runner!"

"That's not much of a secret at all!" Sirius said, actually disappointed.

"Well, I never said that it was a juicy gossip point! All you asked me was why I didn't like sleeping with Lily." She smiled slyly.

He smacked her lightly on the head then moved back to his own bed.

"Thanks, though. You made the bed way warmer." Bridget pulled the covers up to her chin and closed her eyes.

"You're welcome," Sirius replied. There was no answer. She was asleep.

* * *

"Potions with Slytherin today," Peter announced grimly. "I'd ask Lily to be your partner now, James, before she finds out that we don't alternate with Ravenclaw this year."

James bounded away to ask Lily, and Sirius elbowed Bridget in the ribs. "Inanimate object," he addressed the semi-conscious girl next to him. "Congratulations. You are my Potions partner this year."

Her head jerked up in alarm. "Why me? This is payback for last night, isn't it?" she groaned.

"No, I'm over that. This is because you got the next to shortest straw last year when James swore he would never be my partner again and none of you lot wanted to either."

"Oh, god. I remember now." She massaged her temples with her free hand while her other nursed a cup of black coffee.

"You remember when I exploded that cauldron?" He smiled fondly, as if remembering a family pet.

"Which one?"

"The one that went off right in Tom Lien's face."

"And his twin, Cassie from Ravenclaw, went after you afterwards," she supplied. "I remember that one."

"I personally think that his finest moment was when he told Slughorn that he hadn't added the crocodile heart to his poison ivy cure… Slughorn threw in another one and it caused the cauldron to implode and burn through the desk," Remus said reminiscently.

"I'll always remember my Potions grade from last year," Bridget mourned. "There goes my grade."

"You'll be okay!" Sirius said bracingly and clapped her on her shoulder. "C'mon, let's get to class early to chat with old Sluggy. Maybe he'll let you in the Slug Club and you'll never have to worry about grades again!"

"And maybe I'm the sugar plum faerie," she snarled, but collected her books nonetheless and followed him out of the hall.

* * *

"Today we will be brewing a potion to cure sea-sickness," a very queasy Slughorn announced. "Madame Hooch is in the Hospital Wing with the flu and it has fallen to me to supervise the crew team out on the lake. And since it is absolutely out of the question for me to skip breakfast each god-forsaken morning to sit on a barge in the middle of the lake to watch delusional students, the task of brewing a potion to stop said sea-sickness has, in turn, fallen to you. Good luck," he said sourly, and then walked to his office and closed the door behind him.

Bridget scanned the board quickly before ordering Sirius to go get armadillo bile, watermelon rind, raven feathers and caterpillars from the supply closet. It was a fairly simple potion and Bridget was confident that as long as Sirius stayed at least three feet away, she could scrape up a decent grade for the two of them. While Sirius fetched the ingredients, Bridget closed her eyes and tried to remember what Millie had told her about brewing a potion…

_The house-elf viewed her critically, trying to decide whether or not she was joking._

_"Honestly, Millie! I just need something to do! Please, please, please! Let me help out in the kitchens!" Bridget begged._

_"If you are serious about this, then I don't see why not. You can help Heron brew some more Doxicide."_

_Bridget jumped up in the air and clapped her hands excitedly. "I've never been allowed to brew such a difficult potion before!"_

_Millie's already large eyes widened in shock. "What do you mean, 'never been allowed to brew such a difficult potion before?' Doxicide isn't difficult to brew at all!"_

_"I know, but I've never been that good at potions. I don't blow up cauldrons like Sirius, but all my Potions always turn out so weak…"_

_"I guess that we'll just have to change that, won't we?" Millie said briskly. She hopped up onto a stool next to Bridget at the counter and pulled out a battered book._

_She flipped to a page and pointed to a list of ingredients. "Go get those," she ordered and Bridget went obediently to the cupboard and fetched them all._

_"The secret to Potions is to know your ingredients," Millie began. She pointed to a sharp, pointy thorn plant. "What is that?" she asked Bridget._

_Bridget shrugged. "I dunno… thistle?"_

_"Yes. Now what are the magical properties of thistle?"_

_"I don't know," Bridget admitted._

_"Well, then go get your textbook from upstairs and find out! If you don't know the properties of a plant, you'll never be able to perfect your potion. If you knew that thistle is what makes Doxicide temporary, you would eventually be able to measure out the proper amount depending on how long you want the Doxies to stay paralyzed. Do you understand?"_

_"Each ingredient has a specific purpose in a potion because of its properties…" Bridget said slowly. "Oh! So if you wanted to get better results all you would have to do is find out how something would affect the potion! To make a sunscreen potion better, you would want to get more aloe out of a cactus to block the sun!"_

_"Exactly! Potion making is a subtle art. You must understand each component and each ingredient before you begin. Now…" _

Sirius came back with the ingredients and dumped them unceremoniously on the desk.

"Now what?" he asked.

"You watch, I brew." She was already scanning the board for any instructions she may have missed.

She set Sirius to scraping the skin off the watermelon rind and got to work. Bridget had just settled into "auto-Potion" when Sirius made their first mistake.

"Oops!" He had accidentally cut off the head of the caterpillar. Bridget surveyed the damage critically before shrugging and putting it in the cauldron anyways. The cauldron gave off a few ominous pops before turning the shade of blue described in the textbook.

"All done!" Bridget announced and she scooped the potion into several beakers and labelled them. She and Sirius brought them proudly up to Slughorn's desk and were awarded five points for "completing a Potion with Sirius Black and not blowing up or melting a cauldron." Which wasn't exactly complimentary, but then again, she reflected as she packed up her bag, potion was potion and points were points.

The rest of the day went by smoothly with minimal chaos and other than a small skirmish between Bridget and a tall first year in the hall, relatively bruise-free.

Bridget and James were reading peacefully on the couch by the large window when Lily came into the common room and plopped herself down next to Bridget and rested her forehead on the chair arm.

"I am sooo tired!" she moaned.

Bridget gave a small mischievous smile. "Why do you think I sleep in the boys' dormitory? For the smell?"

"Point taken," Lily said. She grunted as she heaved her book bag onto her lap and rummaged around her book for an advanced Charms book she had taken out of the library.

"I think that I'm going to start practicing the i Silencio /i charm on Alice each night," she reflected. "Severus said that he would help me with the tricky bits if I would help him out with—"

"Severus i Snape/i " James stuttered indignantly. "You'll barely acknowledge me but you'll talk to _Snape_. That's it!" He slammed his textbook closed and stalked up to the boys' dorm.

"Weirdo." Lily rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Bridget. "I really don't understand why you guys hate Severus so much."

"I don't care who you hang out with really, I just like the sport of it. The git's just way too easy to curse—"

"Okay, fine! Forget that I asked." She flipped her book open and started to read. After several minutes, she raised her head from her textbook to observe Bridget who was no longer reading her Transfiguration book on Animagi but staring out the window.

"Why do you sleep in the boys' dormitories?" Lily asked quietly.

"Well, they're my friends too. And well, I don't know… I've never really been good friends with Rae and Fern like you guys are and…" she trailed off.

"There are some other benefits too, you know!" She giggled. "Like… no more waking up at six whenever you get ready for your run, I don't have to listen to Alice snoring or Fern sneezing and there's less drama with boys too." She seemed to lose her train of thought as she gazed out on the tranquil setting.

"Oh," Lily said softly and thankfully let the subject drop.

They walked down to dinner together and ate by themselves, just the two of them, for the first time in years. And of course, like most girl on girl chats, this one included the inevitable line:

"So, who do you fancy these days?"

Lily choked on her steak and ale pie and had to down some water before she could answer.

"If Potter put you up to this!" she said warningly.

"_James_ has nothing to do with this," Bridget said airily. "However, one could jump to the conclusion that you do in fact, _like him_."

"How could you even think that? I absolutely hate him!" Lily protested.

"Yet, his name is the first that jumped to your mind when I asked you the question!" Bridget teased.

"I can't help it if I'm paranoid!" Lily lowered her voice and leaned closer to Bridget. "Okay, I do like someone but Potter can't find out!"

"Why not?"

"Because he'll ruin it for me! And I've been hoping that he will ask me to that bloody party Liam's brother is throwing Saturday."

"He won't hear it from me," Bridget promised.

"Okay… now don't laugh, but I like," her voice dropped to an inaudible level.

"I didn't hear you. Speak louder," Bridget told her.

"Fine! I like Quinn Trails!"

"You like him!?" Bridget nearly shouted.

"Keep your voice down, Bee! Yes, as a matter of fact, I do," Lily stated defiantly.

"He's an okay guy I guess, but you could do so much better, Lils!" Bridget urged her.

"Thanks, but I'm not that gorgeous to attract someone like Liam Traverse, you know Bridget," Lily said a bit huffily.

"You don't have to be attractive, Lily! You're friends with me!"

Lily stared at her icily. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"You know how the Marauders are the talk of the school, Lily. Everybody loves us; Sirius didn't have to do my Potions essay last week because some i fifth year /i Hufflepuff gave Sirius hers as a gift! It's insane!"

"Okay, I'm going to ignore your conceited ego and that obvious disregard towards rules and a fair education for right now, because I'm more interested in why you think that you could get _Liam Traverse_ the hottest boy I have ever met in my life, who also happens to be a Pureblood, to go out with _me._ Lily Evans, the red haired Muggle born."

"Simple. We'll get Sirius to ask him." Bridget said this as if that settled the matter.

"Alright, little Miss Smug. Are you willing to bet on that?"

"I'll put my money where my mouth is, if that's what you mean," Bridget smirked.

"Five Galleons say that this isn't going to work," Lily said.

"Ten say that it is," Bridget answered back.

"Okay, deal!" The shook hands.

"So," Lily began, looking at Bridget slyly, "who do you fancy?"

"Well, Liam Traverse, obviously," Bridget looked dreamily into space for a second, before saying, "but I prefer his older brother."

Lily nearly choked on her dinner again. "You mean Sean? Isn't he a fourth-year though?"

"Mhmm," Bridget nodded, her mouth full.

"But he's a fourth year!" Lily protested. "That's even crazier than me fancying his younger brother! If we barely have a chance with his younger brother who is also a second year, how can you expect to get his older brother to notice you?"

"Quidditch," Bridget informed her after she had swallowed. "I'm trying out for the team with Sirius and James tomorrow. Sean is a Chaser for Ravenclaw, and naturally he's coming to the party on Saturday, we'll talk shop and… you know how things are at parties." She smiled wickedly.

"Bridget McGuire!" Lily gasped.

"Oh, calm down, Lily!" Bridget said exasperatedly. "It's not like I'm going to straddle him or something! I'm going to be friends with him first."

"It still sounds dodgy in my opinion," Lily sniffed. "Anyways, off topic—what are you trying out for?"

"Beater."

Lily choked on her steak and ale pie for the third time that night. "You," she gasped, "a beater?"

"I'm pretty good at it actually," Bridget told her. "Feel my arm muscle," Lily felt her flexed forearm and had to agree. "Impressive. Guy muscles."

"I worked out with Sirius over the summer. Our plan was to practice as a matched set of Beaters, that way, when we tried out together, they'd have to take both of us, you see?"

As Bridget talked on about her and Sirius' tryout strategy, a very similar conversation was occurring over at the Marauders' "court."

"Devin."

"Nope," James said.

"Zsa Zsa."

"Yes."

Sirius' ears perked up. "What's this, James? Actually agreeing to go to the party with someone else other than Evans?"

"Well, it'd look pathetic if I'd show up without a date and Zsa Zsa isn't half bad, you know…" James trailed off weakly. "Anyways, who are you going with?"

"Bridget and I are going as a stag pair," Sirius said as he ladled some stew into his bowl. "Easier that way for both me and her. I can play the field while she can… do whatever she does."

James shrugged and said, "I don't know why she just doesn't go put on some make up or whatever girls do and just find her own date."

"Too much effort," Sirius told him. "She lives with us and she's not exactly a make up girl. She's a right good beater, but she's not a make up girl."

"Besides, she likes Sean Traverse," Remus said conversationally.

"And where did you hear that?" Sirius asked him, his face written all over with incredibility.

"She told me," he said simply. "She's planning something on Saturday night I think."

"Do we know Sean?" Sirius asked James.

"Yeah, my dad is his dad's boss," James told him. "Why?"

"Let's set them up," Sirius exclaimed excitedly. "I suddenly have this urge to ask that gorgeous long-legged Hufflepuff to the party and Bridget will love us for it."

* * *

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	11. Chapter 11

The next few days passed without much ado until one day, as the Gryffindors were waiting for Professor McGonagall to enter the classroom, Professor Kookalon strode in instead and after reaching the front of the classroom, cleared his throat and announced in a heavily accented voice, "Please, please, settle down." He waited for the last few murmurs to die down than continued.

"My name is Professor Kookalon. And for those of you who do not remember me, I am now your new therapist. Occasionally, I will be taking over one of your classes to give your teachers a break, and also, to get to know you a little more through group therapy sessions. Like today, you will not be notified in advance but unlike today we might also hold meetings with members of other houses."

Sirius raised his hand high and waved it back and forth frantically.

"Yes? Mister...?" Prof. Kookalon paused uncertainly.

"Black. Sirius Black, sir. Um, I was wondering…do you think you could help me with this problem I have."

"I'll try my best, Sirius. And what might acquire my assistance?"

"Well, sir, my desk has this problem. It keeps sneaking up on me!" Sirius said, with a perfectly straight face.

"Sirius," Professor Kookalon gave him a kind, pitying look. "We both know that it is impossible for one's desk to "sneak up" on someone. Maybe you are having trouble identifying your true phobia…"

A brief look of glee crossed Sirius' face as he saw his plan locking into place.

"Seriously, sir, I think that I need to switch desks with someone."

Professor Kookalon, instead of giving an exasperated sigh, nodded his head in a sort of sympathetic manner, a look that one would usually adopt when dealing with the mentally insane. Sirius got up, collected his books and switched desks with Bridget as Professor Kookalon went around the classroom passing out handouts and cheerful, colored pamphlets.

"This first assignment is relatively easy. To get a feel of who you truly are, I would like you to fill out these profile forms—yes, how may I help you, you in the back." He pointed at Bridget who was fidgeting nervously in Sirius' old seat. "Yes, what's your problem?"

"Um, sorry, Professor, but I just don't feel comfortable in this desk." She bit her lip worriedly and pouted a bit more. "I don't feel safe at all…this may sound silly, Professor, but I honestly believe that the desk is going to, well… jump me."

Professor Kookalon blinked slowly twice without saying a word then in an even voice, intoned, "Well, if you don't feel safe, then why don't you switch seats again? Is there anyone else willing to switch seats with…" He made a frantic gesture with his hands in Bridget's direction. James' hand shot up in the air. "Yes, you, fine, switch," Professor Kookalon said, rather distractedly.

"Now, as I was saying. Fill out these forms and if there's any question you need help with, just come up to the front of the room and ask me. Take all the time you need; you have the entire class period. You may begin."

Bridget quickly scanned the sheet and bit back a laugh at the ridiculously long list of intimate, personal questions. Quill in hand, she started to write.

_Name: Bridget Lisa McGuire_

_Birth date: April 18, 1960_

_Mother: Cho Hitachi McGuire_

_Father: Gus Albert McGuire_

_Parental Circumstances: Mother deceased, father alive and remarried._

_Place of birth: Ellesmere Range_

_Current residence: Ellesmere Range_

_Blood status: Pureblood_

_House: Gryffindor_

_Extracurricular: What's an extracurricular?_

She quickly scribbled down some one-word answers to the rest of the problems which got increasingly embarrassing as it got further down the roll of parchment: "Have you ever had sex? Describe your most intimate relationship. Have you ever experimented with drugs and/or alcohol?" And so on, and so forth.

In boredom, Bridget looked around for something to do. She was spared the trouble when all of the sudden, James gave a loud yelp and ran from his desk comically. Sensing that they were in for a treat their fellow housemates put down their quills and watched, completely captivated.

"Professor! My desk bit me!" James rushed up to the front of the room and held up his mark free and blood free arm right under Kookalon's nose. Kookalon, looking rather affronted, pushed James' offending arm gently out from his breathing space.

"I don't see any mark there, Mr. Potter. Please be so kind as to sit—"

But he was interrupted by another loud yelp, this time from Fern Freeman.

"Professor! Something bit me!" Her eyes were wide and fearful.

"Ouch!"

"Ugh! It won't leave me alone!"

Soon, the entire classroom was full of people swatting at their desks with textbooks, rulers, book bags or whatever else was easily in reach. Bridget grinned as she felt a sudden fondness for her fellow Gryffindors who had so gamely agreed to this prank. They were originally going to pull it on McGonagall, but with her not here and a fresh new teacher to torture… She whipped out her wand and shouted _"Mobilis!"_ Her wand emitted a bang and her desk began to gallop around the classroom. She shouted the spell again, not bothering to aim the spell properly, and sent another three or more desks cantering around the classroom giving off smoke and loud bangs.

Sirius only added to the mayhem by setting off a pack of firecrackers, which startled Rae Dawn so badly that she gave a jump and stumbled backwards into Sirius' lap. She mumbled an apology and tried to pull away, but Sirius only grinned at her and held her closer. Rae's cheeks went pink, although she looked slightly pleased at the attention she was receiving. James tried to sneak up behind Lily, but the only thing that came of that was the resound slap that he got across the face and a knee in the privates.

"You try that again, Potter, and I'll!"

"Getting touched by you is like being touched by an angel!" James shouted over her tirade while hopping up and down in pain. "Bring back the fire, baby!"

Lily gave him a look that would wither most people, yet James only grinned. Bridget nearly blinked and missed Lily launching herself at James, hexing and hitting whatever part of his body that she could reach.

"I—DO—NOT—ENJOY—BEING—HARASSED! BY—YOU! OR—ANYONE—ELSE!" She punctuated each sharp word with a hard blow to the head and forced James to jump onto one of the desks running around the room.

His natural born Quidditch skills immediately kicked in and he stood up on the desk and proceeded to jump from desk to desk as they continued to run amok about the room.

"DESK TAG!" Alice shrieked and almost immediately the entire class was jumping from desk to stampeding desk, trying to tag or push their neighbors off.

"SILENCE!" Professor Kookalon screamed. With a wave of his wand, the desks collapsed onto the floor and dumped their riders into one big heap.

"WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?" he thundered as he glared down the class who were still quietly giggling in fits of hysteria as they tried to untangle themselves from the pile they were in.

"What is going on here, Professor?"

Bridget's blood ran cold. _'Oh, no…Not McGonagall.'_ she thought with dread. She lifted her head from where she was trapped underneath Sirius and saw that it was indeed the dreaded Deputy Headmistress.

"These students have decided to make a fool of me and take some liberties with a new teacher," Kookalon replied. "However, if the perpetrators would come forward and turn themselves in, I think that there's no need to take away the entire class' afternoons from now until January to help Professor Slughorn in the dungeons…?"

Bridget heard Sirius give an audible sigh as he heaved himself up and presented himself to Professor Kookalon. Bridget joined him in the front of the classroom, quickly followed by James, Peter, and Remus. Professor McGonagall looked a little surprised that they had given themselves up so fast, but she turned away and began instructing the rest of the class in how to set the classroom to rights again.

Professor Kookalon walked over to the back of the desk and sat down heavily in his chair. He rested his head in his hands and took several deep breaths before speaking.

"Obviously, you are all very _troubled_ youths. I believe that while punishment would keep you busy, that you would benefit more from some group therapy sessions with me every Tuesday. I have a free hour then that I had _planned_ to spend listening to my Wizarding Wireless and maybe spend an hour or two in the pub…" He trailed off, looking wistful at the idea of an hour of peace and quiet. "But it is apparent that you five require some extra time to sort out your destructive tendencies."

He took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. "In the mean time, I believe that this requires some immediate intervention while the incident is still fresh in our minds. Come to my office right after your last lesson—"

"This is our last lesson for the day," Remus informed him.

"Very well then, right after class report to me. Bring a quill, some parchment, and _most importantly_ an open mind! Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Peter said dully.

"Good. See you in…" He checked his watch. "Five minutes."

After giving Professor McGonagall a grateful look, he walked from the room.

The rest of the lesson consisted of McGonagall trying to get the class back under control and failing, for the first time ever, rather miserably. No matter what she tried—threats, bribery, stern looks, temper—she simply could not get them to stop chatting excitedly about the Marauders.

She dismissed when the bell rang and as she watched them pour out of the classroom from her desk, she shook her head slowly. McGonagall surveyed the room, which was still in disarray, and couldn't help but wonder to herself, "What on earth did they _do?_"

* * *

Gotta love the Marauders, huh? I know that these chapters have been rather tame and slow, but as they start to grow it'll pick up. Please leave a review! 


	12. Chapter 12

Dear Diary,

First off, you need a better name. Diaries are for girls. And Remus. But he's _special_ and more "in touch" with his emotions so he doesn't count. Or at least that's what Prof. Kookalon thinks. After only talking to us, he's already deduced that Remus is the sanest one here. Smart man. Bridget's been off the deep end for a while, and James and I are lost cases. We're not too sure about Peter yet. My bet is that he's some sort of idiot savant with a talent for predicting the stock market. Bridget is betting that he'll end up being a circus freak. Either way, he's still a bit odd.

This diary stuff is harder then I thought it would be. I had no idea my head is so darn empty of intelligent thought! I guess that I'll have to placate myself by remembering that if I fill up the damn book then I don't have to go to these things any more. At one entry per page, and fifty-five pages, with one session a week, we're already roughly into next year, so I think I'm going to need to enlarge my writing a bit.

What to write, what to write… I guess I'll talk about James and the rest of them…Good people…

_Five minutes later, same bloody therapy session._

…I'm still bored as hell…

_Five minutes after five minutes ago, same session._

I'm wondering if that bug is ever going to fly out the window. The buzzing noise is quite distracting.

_Five minutes later—you get the idea._

The Kook took James and they went into a separate room. Wonder what's going to happen. The Kook just asked to see James' wand before they went in. Kinky stuff! I'm not sure if James goes for the older, male type though… the Kook might get disappointed.

I really hope that Evans is in the same room. Can't you just imagine it? Sparks flying…things getting hot and heated…James emerging with his head covered in boils… Now, _that's_ a fight I would love to see!

Ouch, Bridget just hit me with a sharp, paper-cut inducing, devilish note. I'll copy it here to take up room.

_Brilliant idea that Peter came up with—we're writing down our childhood ailments and phobias._

_Bee_

_Oh, really? And what have you got?_

_Sirius_

_Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia of course! _

_Bee_

_What in Godric's name is that?!?_

_Sirius_

_Fear of long words. DUH!_

_Bee_

_Of course, how idiotic of me. May I ask what my fear is?_

_Sirius_

_Medomalacuphobia. Or Ithyphallophobia. We haven't decided._

_Bee_

_I like the sound of those two. They sound very medical/crazy like._

_Sirius_

_Peter has wiccaphobia—fear of witchcraft and Remus has selenophobia—fear of the moon._

_Bee_

_Perfect! What did you come up with for James?_

_Sirius_

_Aviatophobia—fear of flying._

_Bee_

_That's perfect for ol' James! Where are you finding these by the way?_

_Sirius_

_Oh, nicked a book from Prof. Kookalon's private collection. Pete and I have been having oh-so-much fun being cooped up here in our own little corner. At least we can talk though. You, Remus, and James are screwed. Where is James, by the way?_

_Bee_

_I call him "the Kook" now. Prof. Kookalon is too much to write out. Good thinking, grabbing that book! James is in the other room with the Kook. I fear for his innocence. The Kook asked to see his wand!_

_Sirius_

_Pervert! You have one twisted little mind, Sirius Black._

_Bee_

_So do you. I've heard some naughty things about what you want to do to a certain Ravenclaw! How old are you, again? Eleven?_

_Sirius_

_I'm twelve, dumb shit. AND WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT?!?!_

_Bee_

_I have my sources._

_Sirius_

_Sources, my ass. I hear the Kook coming in. Be quiet and I'll start it off. Okay?_

_Bee_

Sirius shoved the parchment into his pocket and finished scribbling down a closing line as Professor Kookalon came into the room, dragging a thoroughly disheveled James with him.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at Bridget, who quickly covered her small fit of giggles with some fake coughing.

"All done?" Professor Kookalon asked the assembled prisoners. "Good. Now I want to open the floor to some open and honest discussion. It can be anything that you want to talk about, all I want to ask is that you respect others' feelings and regard this place as a "safety zone." There is no teasing or bullying here. Ms. McGuire, would you like to go first?"

"I want to talk about this horrible, long time fear of mine." She glanced around dramatically for theatric effect, then went on in a hushed, hurried voice.

"Well, it's kind of embarrassing but… I have a horrible case of Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia." She hid her face in her hands and peeped through her fingers.

"But that's irrational," Professor Kookalon soothed her, "if you really did have Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia—"

Bridget screamed once shrilly and started beating the cushions with her fists. "DON'T SAY IT! DON'T SAY IT! DON'T SAY Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia!"

"But you just said it," Professor Kookalon said, perplexed. "How is it possible that—"

"James has aviophobia, but I bet you believe i him/i " Bridget shrieked. James looked mystified, yet amused, and he quickly caught on.

"GOD, BRIDGET! YOU'VE JUST GOT TO TELL EVERYONE, DON'T YOU?!" James thundered, in a rather impressive imitation of Sirius' father.

"But, you're on the Gryffindor Quidditch team! You play Chaser!" Professor Kookalon faltered.

"So what? We all have secrets," Remus said, a bit creepily. "I, for one, Professor, have selenophobia."

"Well, that's understandable," Professor Kookalon said, a bit uncomfortably.

"SO, HE CAN BE AFRAID OF THE MOON, YET YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY THAT I HAVE A FEAR OF LONG WORDS! NOOOOO! THAT'S JUST TOO IRRATIONAL!" Bridget whined at a decimal level appropriate for large aircraft taking off and packed Quidditch stadiums full of screaming fans.

"So, you won't believe me when I tell you that I have got wiccaphobia, will you? So much for this place being a 'safety zone.'" Peter sat back in his armchair, looking as if he was a fat cat who had just eaten Kookalon's pet canary.

"Can't you see how silly this all is?" Professor Kookalon pleaded.

"It's not silly when you've had acute medomalacuphobia and ithyphallophobia for your entire life." Sirius said solemnly.

Professor Kookalon's face turned an odd shade of putrid maroon before he burst out shouting: "YOU DO NOT HAVE AN ACUTE FEAR OF LOSING AN ERECTION, BLACK! NOR DO YOU HAVE A FEAR OF HAVING AN ERECT MEMBER, I AM SURE!"

"You bloody wanker!" Sirius shouted at Bridget. "That's what those two mean?"

James, Peter, Remus, and Bridget were all doubled over, laughing. Professor Kookalon looked ready for a pint or twelve and Sirius wasn't sure whether he wanted to murder Bridget or hug her.

"This is not funny, people! This is supposed to be a serious, thoughtful discussion! Quiet down, now!" When the five failed to comply, he snapped, "Or else I'm sending you all down to the Hospital Wing with the symptoms you've oh-so-wittingly made up!"

_'That shut us up fast,'_ Sirius reflected thoughtfully as they waited for Professor Kookalon to calm down.

Once he had composed himself, the professor gasped, "You will come here every other Tuesday precisely fifteen minutes after your last class. You are dismissed."

The five shot from the room like a dart and collapsed giggling in the hall. They set off down a random hallway, not paying any real attention to as where they went, laughing and talking as they walked.

"So, did the Kook see your wand, James?" Bridget elbowed him in the ribs and James blushed a deep shade of red.

"The man is seriously off his rocker. Nice, but crazy." James shook his head in disbelief. "He thought that my _wand_ was the source of my anger-management problems."

"Wow. That's _special_," Bridget sniggered. She made a face and plopped down on the ground next to a tapestry. "Wait a second, I've got something in my shoe."

"Here, try this," Peter offered helpfully. He pointed his wand at her shoe and said, _"Thingawasi!"_

Bridget's shoe exploded with a bang and sent Bridget and the other scrabbling to get out of the way of the noxious black smoke. Remus cleared the area with a few waves of his wand and to their relief, the only lasting damage to the carpet was a small scorch mark.

"Do I even need to tell you how stupid that was?" Sirius asked, exasperated. "You could've blown her foot up!"

"It's okay, Sirius, I just need a new shoe that's all," Bridget placated him. "Remus, can you Conjure a new one?"

"Yes, but it'll take a few minutes."

Bridget got up and started pacing back and forth on the other side of the hall.

_Dang it, Peter! That was my favorite pair of trainers! Now I'm going to need new ones…_ She was so focused on her shoes, that she didn't even notice it when a door appeared in the middle of the wall.

"What the—" James jaw dropped. "Where did that come from?"

Bridget stopped her pacing and seized the doorknob and turned. Out came a flood of trainers that nearly knocked her to the ground.

Sirius turned around to face Remus. "Did you do this?" he asked.

Remus could only shake his head in amazement.

"Close the door," Sirius commanded and Peter shut it for him. "Do that walky-thing again, Bee and think of…" he paused.

"How about a secret passageway to the Gryffindor Tower?" Remus suggested.

"Or how about butterbeer!" Peter chirruped happily.

"Or how about I choose, huh?" Bridget said rather huffily. She walked past the door three times and focused on a matching trainer. The door appeared again! She seized the doorknob and for the second time sneakers flooded out onto the hallway. Bridget grabbed one and put it on while Sirius mimicked her walk. The door appeared again and this time there was a spacious room inside with a couch and Butterbeer.

"Let's make this our little secret, eh?" Sirius said with an ecstatic smile. "Every other Thursday… here… after therapy. What do you say?"

* * *

They've found the RoR!!! Leave a review! 


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